Recycled Tail Wheel Mod

[john66]

So here goes for my first mod of my own........apologies if been done before for claimin as my own, but couldnt find it anywhere.

After having replaced the landing gear wheels with Dubro 3" Diamond lites (not on yet im waiting to get the dubro 4-40 couplers as skivit suggested though I still have the 2 3/4 rubber ones on the plane). I decided that the tail wheel looked kinda silly compared to the bigger main wheels.

I proceeded to pluck the hub from the original tail wheel then remove the hub from one of the original front landing gear wheels. The hub from the original front landing gear comes apart in two halves. I took the female half of the hub and hacksawed the flat part that is visible in the centre of the wheel when the hub is together as normal.

I went on to locate the original tail wheel hub centrally and flush in the original landing gear wheel, I fixed it in place with super glue.

As the tail wheel hub is nowhere near as wide as the front wheel hubs as you look from the opposite side of the wheel to where I have glued the tail hub there is quite a reccess.

My plan was to simply pop the original front wheel on the tail axle (now fitting nicely with its tail wheel hub, check it spins freely, it did, replace the tail axle nut & then for pure asthetics glue the flat piece of hub I hacksawed off back on the wheel. Yes this would make this pretty irremovable once glued back covering the nut, but I figured why would I want to remove it in future!

Sounds great in theory looks great in reality, cept heres the best bit......

While trying to re locate the tail wheel nut with a pair of long nose pliers, PING! It flew across the room. I have spent a very long time searching, head torch on on hands and knees yet I still cant find.

So close to my first orig mod, yet so far and now no tail wheel at all!

The first pic shows the tail wheel with the hub removed and glued into the original fuse wheel, the original fuse wheel hub in two halfs with the front of the female half hacksawed off.

The second pic shows how lovely the wheel would have looked after refitting it to the tail and then gluing the flat piece of sawn off hub back on (it was just placed there not glued, for the sake of the pic and wont be glued until the nut can be found or I have to buy a whole new tail wheel!..........B@ll*cK$

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[john66]

Second pic....Kinda looks just like a standard wheel, its not!

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[john66]

Yay! New tail wheel assembly on way, should receive it tomorrow along with some of the 4-40 threaded couplers for the main landing gear.

[john66]

New tail wheel turned up this morning so was able to complete the mod. I was just about to take her outside to film a short clip taxiing on the driveway when of course it started pi$$ing with rain, so will do later.

Anyway, I guess as I had to buy a whole new tail wheel just for the nut originally (read on for why I say originally) it makes it no longer a "Recycled" tail wheel mod!

After I received the new tail wheel nut I thought I would simply screw the new nut on holding the modified wheel in place and then glue into place the original hacksawed hub. Unfortunately the domed end of the nut needed hacksawing off too in order for the original landing gear hub to sit flush, I did this then In attempting to superglue the flat piece of hub to the outside of the wheel I managed to get super glue on the axle allowing the wheel to no longer spin freely, bah!

Luckily I still had the other main original landing gear wheel and a whole new tail wheel, so I proceeded to repeat my original idea but this time when it came to gluing the hub on I put my hand in a plastic bag as a kind of glove to protect my fingers from the superglue then on the bag but balanced on my finger I place the flat piece of hub and applied superglue to it. This time instead of having the wheel on the bench and bringing the flat hub onto the wheel (which is when the glue dripped down the axle, I did it the opposite way as I was now doing it to the tail wheel assembly unattached to the plane and bought the wheel outside face down onto the hub, wiggled it flush and then held to set for a few seconds.........Success!

;D ;D ;D

The only other minor adjustment i made was bending the axle slightly with a pair of pliers in order that it was no longer at 90 degrees to the part that comes down from the spring but increased the angle to aprox 95-100 degrees in order that the larger wheel had slighltly more clearance from the metal that comes down from the spring.

Rain stopped so took her outside she seemed to taxi fine (I say seemed to as our drive is very uneven and pulls the cub in allsorts of directions plus it was fairly gusty even at ground level, will know for sure if I can get her out on some nice even tarmac)but due to no cam available (was alone, this time) no vid till maybe tomorrow, Weather dependant!

John

[john66]

Just waiting for the nyloc nuts then will fit Dubro 3" Diamond Lites the Cub is pictured at the bottom with 2 3/4" main landing gear.

[SCC]

Hi John. The new boots are looking good.

[john66]

Cheers SCC

John

[john66]

Just wondering why nobody seems to upgrade the tail wheel, often even on highly modified Cubs?

I was under the impression it would help on rougher terrain.

John

[ginginho]

John, it's not really necessary as the cub is a tail dragger, but some still do. Here's mine:

After swapping out the stock front wheels, it looks more scale than the original.

[john66]

Hi ginginho, I agree with the scale side of things, that was the main reason I did mine, albeit prob too large now! Though im hoping it will help with longer grass. When I mentioned it should make it easier to come into land to my gf, she pointed out with raised eybrows that, thats what she thought I used the prop for!

Is your one the correct fit for the axle or did you modify the axle if so how?

[helikiwi]

Some full scale ones have big tailwheels -

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[john66]

Apr 5, 2010 11:53:18 GMT 1 helikiwi said:

Some full scale ones have big tailwheels -

Cool!

John