The Cessna 120-140 Association Forum

My 140A had a cracked tail wheel bracket that had two doublers installed that had also cracked. After doing some homework my A&P and I removed the rudder and vertical stab, lifted but did not remove the horizontal stab and elevators and removed the tail wheel bracket. The bracket was sent to David Lowe (Lowe Aviation) to be rebuilt. It was returned in a week, including shipping both ways.

The fit was outstanding and the installation was accomplished with a less than expected amount of profanity. Access to the tail cone is not optimal, but it is possible. A custom bucking bar would help.

The take away from this is that I would highly recommend having your tail wheel bracket rebuilt by Dave instead of purchasing an new one. The workmanship and fit are outstanding. You can contact Dave at davidlowe.c140@gmail.com or by phone at 270-929-3776.

Hopefully I won't need another tail wheel bracket for at least 50 years, but if I do I will get it from Dave.

Been there and done that Yes Glad we have David and so many other members with the passion for saving our Cessna's!

How do you rebuild a tailwheel bracket? It is metal with holes in it, right? I mean, what part of it gets rebuilt?

atypicalguy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2024 10:35 am How do you rebuild a tailwheel bracket? It is metal with holes in it, right? I mean, what part of it gets rebuilt?

Not to be a smart Alec, but, the broken metal part gets replaced.

OK I guess I am just wondering what part of the bracket typically breaks? I wasn't aware this was a problem. Mine looked pretty good but I would have hit it with a magnifying glass while it was off if I had known there were identified failure points

Isn't that a repair underneath the spring shackle?

Yes. So are we supposed to be replacing good repairs? Probably not coming off the plane again for awhile.

atypicalguy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:18 amSo are we supposed to be replacing good repairs?

My post was in answer to your question: "OK I guess I am just wondering what part of the bracket typically breaks?"

Not trying to start an argument, but I'm curious how you know it is a "good repair".

The original question was "What part of these things typically breaks?" So far, no answers.

If the answer is the part with the doubler in my photo, then it has already been repaired.

If it is some other part that typically fails, i will look at that.

Regarding the integrity of the repair, how do we know if any repair is "good"? To me, if the thing is riveted on tight without any cracks, I would say it is good, provided the correct material and thickness were used. But who am I to say, really. That is why people go to school. So far none of the mechanics who have seen it think it is problematic.

atypicalguy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:12 pm The original question was "What part of these things typically breaks?" So far, no answers.

If the answer is the part with the doubler in my photo, then it has already been repaired.

If it is some other part that typically fails, i will look at that.

Regarding the integrity of the repair, how do we know if any repair is "good"? To me, if the thing is riveted on tight without any cracks, I would say it is good, provided the correct material and thickness were used. But who am I to say, really. That is why people go to school. So far none of the mechanics who have seen it think it is problematic.

I guess I would also say that it is clear that the original part is not adequate structurally, and that making a new metal bracket with identical specs to the old one isn't going to solve that problem. Why would anyone replace a part that fails all the time with an identical part? Probably a good idea to use something thicker, or change the design altogether. Or put a doubler or two on there to add more material at that point than the original bracket had.

In general, I am not really impressed by this plane. It may be a better plane than the comparator planes of the same period, but so far this annual my rear bulkhead is cracked, the tailwheel bracket failed a long time ago, the horizontal leading edge skin is cracked at the root, and the flap actuation brackets are cracked on both sides. Basically these airframes are well beyond their design lifespans, and they weren't designed that well to begin with. The bulkhead AD is from the year after my plane was made, so they were already failing at that point. Unfortunately there are lots of things without ADs also. The metal is just wearing out and failing at lots of critical stress points.

I will stop whining now but if things like landing gear are falling off, it calls into question the whole design of the plane.