Tail Wheel bracket for 140A

[4004]

I'm not familiar with the 140A bracket and its attachment hardware, but I'm waiting for the comments since a "buncking bar" would help. The colored photo almost looks like machine screws vs rivets.
Would one happen to have photos of before and after?

The typical failure on the 140 was at the upper forward cutout where the bracket interfaced around the tail post. My opinion, it was due to the lack of maintenance when people changed to the large tail wheels and it would cause big time vibration on the whole bracket/wheel/lail post assembley.

[6643]

A lot of these planes were used as trainers back when they were new. They're not all in the condition you describe, and, yeah, they're all over 70 years old. It's too bad those problems weren't caught by your pre-buy inspection. There are plenty of better planes out there.

I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that landing gear extenders have been connected with tail wheel bracket failure. If true, it would stand to reason that later planes with swept gear would be, too.

Is yours steel or aluminum? If it is crack free and the repair was done correctly, as you describe, then there's not much to worry about. OTOH, the fact that it was repaired, coupled with the need to replace the rear bulkhead, points to a rough life.

If you want more insight, I'd give David Lowe a call. Since he repairs them, he's probably got as much insight into how they fail as anyone.

[edidin]

These planes are loved because they fly so well, with fingertip control applications almost like a helicopter.

They have been cheap for a long time and cheap aircraft begat cheap maintenance. So often you may have to clean up a few things that the previous ten owners did not. The defects you mentioned are not that hard to fix, although it does sound like some of them should have been fixed as part of an AD compliance.

Over the years the tails may take some abuse; install a new bracket, maybe a new leading edge (Univair sells both new), and likely the fix will last well past the current pilot's ownership.

Or you can get a Cub and cut out and weld in new tubes to replace the ones that have rusted out. All these old planes have weak points.

[atypicalguy]

I appreciate these helpful comments.

This video seems to support the idea that they tend to fail at the rivet line; https://youtu.be/KfaV18KGQwU?si=k_6KiEiC3sNQjXxx

If I had known that, I might have had David Lowe make me a new one while he was making the new aft bulkhead. I spent some time cleaning the old tailwheel bracket up, but didn't see any cracks on the inside anyway. Paint can hide things on the outside of course.

The flap brackets are a known failure point. Think they finally started rusting through enough to see the cracks. I put over a hundred hours on the plane so far without many repairs, so it got me through my PPL before finding all this stuff. I did OK on it paying 21k for the plane and it has a c85 stroker in it. Honestly I am just surprised something like that bulkhead ad has been signed off all this time but it may be the crack only developed this year.

The thing this has been costing me is currency and time. Finding anyone to do this sort of work has been a significant challenge. All the mechanics have left our field because it is slated to be closed down in 2028. Only guy left is the Cirrus shop and he doesn't want the job. I am new to all this aircraft rivet stuff. I can get help with engine stuff but not metal work.

I also don't like the idea that the whole flap could have ripped off or the lower rudder hinge could have started to rip out. That sort of safety stuff gets my attention and it all sort of snuck up on me somehow at once.

[atypicalguy]

I'm not familiar with the 140A bracket and its attachment hardware, but I'm waiting for the comments since a "buncking bar" would help. The colored photo almost looks like machine screws vs rivets.
Would one happen to have photos of before and after?

The typical failure on the 140 was at the upper forward cutout where the bracket interfaced around the tail post. My opinion, it was due to the lack of maintenance when people changed to the large tail wheels and it would cause big time vibration on the whole bracket/wheel/lail post assembley.

It was necessary to use some tungsten bucking bars to get where we needed to get inside the tail.

Everything is riveted. I can take some more photos when I am back at the plane.

[atypicalguy]

I'm not familiar with the 140A bracket and its attachment hardware, but I'm waiting for the comments since a "buncking bar" would help. The colored photo almost looks like machine screws vs rivets.
Would one happen to have photos of before and after?

The typical failure on the 140 was at the upper forward cutout where the bracket interfaced around the tail post. My opinion, it was due to the lack of maintenance when people changed to the large tail wheels and it would cause big time vibration on the whole bracket/wheel/lail post assembley.

Helpful comment. Thanks. I just saw the plane with all the bolts holding the bracket on had the bracket fail exactly where you describe; it was on Facebook I think.