1964 7ECA Forward Gear Attachment Fitting Replacement

I

Ianlen

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Nov 1, 2019
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Anyone ever replaced the forward gear attachment fitting on the older gear

Do you have to cut the airframe tubes to get it welded. Looking at the replacement brackets from Univair U1-2264 and U1-2265 it looks like the bracket has to slide on to the airframe tube and then it’s gets welded

Just wondering has anyone had any experience of replacing the bracket before

I need to replace mine after a ground loop
 
I'm very sorry to hear that @Ianlen. if the fitting can't slide over the tube in order to be located correctly before welding, you'd be best served by calling ACA and speaking with Pat who will be able to offer guidance. He's also the shop manager so you might not get him on the first call but he'll call you back if you leave a message. Good luck!
 
In looking at the part
www.univair.com

U1-2264 AERONCA LUG

At Univair, we’re experts at salvaging and rehabilitating classic planes with our vintage aircraft parts for sale. You can buy classic aircraft parts here!
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it looks like it should slip over the tube once you have the old lugs out of the way. if you have a welder lined up to do the work, send them a picture of the damaged area and the lugs, they'll be able to tell you what they'll need to do to make it all better.
 
Aeronca SL-6 describes repair of the mounting lug by welding up the end of the lug, grinding it flat and then welding 1/8" 4130 steel washers around the entire outer periphery of the lug. Of course you have to use longer bolts when reassembling the landing gear...
Works great! Did both front lugs on a 7AC. Fairly easy to do and the lugs stay lined up while you weld on top of them saving alignment problems later!

Hope this helps.

Chris
 
Bartman said:
you mean the outer periphery of the washer that is being used to double the gear mounting hole of the lug?
Click to expand...
Yea, you close up the hole in the lug with welding rod and clean out the hole so the original bolt fits as tight as possible. Grind the lug flat on the outside surface then grind the washer out to match the outline of the lug, clamp in place with a bolt thru the lug/washer to keep it all lined up (you don't have to use a washer, you could make the reinforcement out of steel scrap or the store-bought ones...washers are just easier...) then weld the entire outside edge of the lug/reinforcement. Clean up with a file and you're good to go. Here's a pic of my repair. The pic is low quality, sorry.
IMAG1187.jpg
You really can't see the washer but it's there! Also you can see the complete center yoke I had to replace...I don't have the part number but it comes with the front and rear plates welded to 6" stubs. The part number is listed in the Maintenance Manual...I guess ripping the gear out of Aeroncas was fairly common in the 50's and 60's 🙄.
Chris
 
so you're saying, instead of removing the old lug and then welding on a new one, just straighten out the old one and double it with some 1/8" 4130 plate provided it's welded around the entire periphery of the original lug? and recondition the hole by welding it shut and redrilling/reaming it to size.
 
Actually you don't really weld the hole closed. You weld the end of the lug shut where it ripped out, clean it up and reinforce it. It saves the trouble of grinding the lug totally off and then trying to get a new lug lined up and welded to the tubing. Remember, if you put a new lug on and it's not done in some sort of jig you don't have any way to make sure the gear will track straight and true.
Chris
 
Thanks for your suggestion guys unfortunately I have got nothing to weld to the gear snapped the outer part of the lug clean off.
Point taken on contacting ACA perhaps they have a repair scheme.
 
I'm betting the only way to fix that is a trip to a factory jig. That is quite a tricky load bearing cluster (vertical cage, forward landing gear and lift strut attachment) and if it took that hard of a lick you've got some tweeked tubes around there that will need to be lined back up.
Best of luck with the repairs.
 
You might think about building a fixture that would maintain the location and angle before grinding off the old fitting.
 
Was there ever a resolution to this issue? I’m currently building a jig to cut off, cut new, and replace the same part on a ‘66
 

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I replaced the floor sub frame from the forward gear attachment points on both sides back to the sub floor at the back of the cockpit. Wanted to keep the integrity of the airframe and ensure alignment. ACA recommended same. Not easy but thorough.
 
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