Rudder return spring

bweyers · Post by **bweyers** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:22 pm

Seems my left rudder return spring broke on my 52 170B.

My AP ordered new ones and they are MUCH heavier than what is in the plane. We must have the wrong part. Any help or suggestions regarding whats going on?

Thanks
Bill

Post by **Bruce Fenstermacher** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:20 pm

You are presuming you had the correct springs to begin with. Maybe you didn't.

Here is a picture of the Scott 3239 spring you should have:

This particular example is used and the ends might be tweeked a bit making it about 4.5 inches outside end to outside end.

The spring for the Scott 2000 (3-24B) is smaller in diameter and thinner but longer.

Here is a PDF I found somewhere, probably the Cessna 140 site by a guy named Neil that has good pictures of all the steering springs and drawings with dimensions.

tailwheel_steering_springs.pdf: (288.35 KiB) Downloaded 488 times

Don't use Maule compression springs what ever you do.

Post by **GAHorn** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:16 pm

Bruce, I think he is referring to the rudder return springs attached forward of the rudder pedals and below the floor. (Items 3 & 4, part nos 0310196-3, -4)

Bill, those springs resemble automobile accelerator-return springs found on old chevies beside the carburetor. (But don't use those...use the genuine parts from Cessna. Try www.cessnaparts.com )

: click to ENLARGE

n2582d · Post by **n2582d** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:07 am

bweyers wrote:Seems my left rudder return spring broke on my 52 170B.

My AP ordered new ones and they are MUCH heavier than what is in the plane. We must have the wrong part. Any help or suggestions regarding whats going on?

Bill,
Here's what mine, also from a '52 170B, look like. The top one is p/n 0310196-4. It is 4.816" long. The bottom one is p/n 0310196-3. It is 3.826" long. The spring diameter on both of them is .450" and the wire diameter is .065"

Post by **Bruce Fenstermacher** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:18 am

gahorn wrote:Bruce, I think he is referring to the rudder return springs attached forward of the rudder pedals and below the floor. (Items 3 & 4, part nos 0310196-3, -4)

Well at least I took a nice picture of the correct steering spring.

lowNslow · Post by **lowNslow** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:10 am

N9149A wrote: Well at least I took a nice picture of the correct steering spring.

Indeed, but you need to put more rulers in your pictures.

Post by **GAHorn** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:32 pm

lowNslow wrote:
N9149A wrote: Well at least I took a nice picture of the correct steering spring.
Indeed, but you need to put more rulers in your pictures.

I think all will agree we have enough "rulers" around here. We just don't all measure-up to expectations.

bweyers · Post by **bweyers** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:10 am

Yes, its the spring up front I was talking about. Thanks for your help guys!
Bill

n2582d · Post by **n2582d** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:46 am

You might want to take a close look at the right rudder return spring while you're replacing the left rudder return spring. Probably good practice to replace them both at the same time. If you bought and replaced both you'd have a spare right return spring which could be shortened and used on the left side if necessary (assuming it broke on the long end).

hungstart · Post by **hungstart** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:01 am

I think I have a broken spring on my airplane. One pedal is way ahead of the other and it has almost like free play in it's movement. Will pull the side panels and look tomorrow. The IPC reference is for a 170B, are the springs the same on the 170A? I'm at home and the IPC for mine is at the hangar. I hope they are, I ordered a set of them tonight before I noticed it was a "B" IPC. Are the rudder torque tube bearings easy to change, I noticed tonight when I started pulling panels that the right outboard has a lot of slop in it?

Rick
N170MB soon to be N170RC

j3pup · Post by **j3pup** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:23 pm

All 170 IPC's are here for free online http://www.cessna170guide.org/wiki/Illu ... rts_Manual

j3pup · Post by **j3pup** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:30 pm

Although I am no maintenance advisor and I would defer to gahorn, upon further investigation it looks like they are the same on both the 170A and 170B. I just ordered these from iwantcessnaparts.com for my 170B

0310196-4 Left $11.31
0310196-3 Right $17.08
Total $28.39

HA · Post by HA » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:43 pm

years ago when one of these springs broke in my airplane, I found that the replacement spring was a bit more ambitious than my old one, so I replaced them both as a pair and everything stayed lined up.

hungstart · Post by **hungstart** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:49 pm

HA wrote:years ago when one of these springs broke in my airplane, I found that the replacement spring was a bit more ambitious than my old one, so I replaced them both as a pair and everything stayed lined up.

That's what I'm doing, I ordered both springs and all 4 of the bearings for the rudder torque tubes.

Rick
N170MB soon to be N170RC

Brad Brady · Post by **Brad Brady** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:30 am

hungstart wrote:
HA wrote:years ago when one of these springs broke in my airplane, I found that the replacement spring was a bit more ambitious than my old one, so I replaced them both as a pair and everything stayed lined up.
That's what I'm doing, I ordered both springs and all 4 of the bearings for the rudder torque tubes.

Rick
N170MB soon to be N170RC

Your both very smart........Brad

The International Cessna 170 Association

Rudder return spring

Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring

Re: Rudder return spring