Warbird Information Exchange

I am working on a restoration of an A-26, and many cables need layers of dirt and dust cleaned from them for inspection and then I been told they should be lightly lubed after being cleaned.

I am looking for help on what product to use to clean the cables and then what to due for lube coating on them.

We have many small cables in tight areas for the engine and other controls as well as larger flight control cables to clean and any help would be accepted for what to use.

Kurt

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A-7D, the Short Little Ugly "Flyer" and A-10A Warthog, weren't called an ATTACK plane for nothing. Remember for a little relief on the ground, call your local Air Force to "Go Ugly Early"!

Check a copy of (FAA Manuals) AC 43.13-1b, Acceptable Procedures and Techniques, and also the Airframe Manual, AC-65-15A. One or the other should have a good procedure for the task...

Robbie

Kurt,

I use an aerosol cable lubricant as a cleaning solution. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the company, but I will get it for you. This is considered as a final lubricant for aircraft cables, but I have found that it also works well to remove layers of gunk without drying out the inside of the cable. It takes time to loosen stubborn old grease and gunk, but doesn't remove any inner lube that still remains in the cable. After cleaning, you can use the final lubricant called out in the maintenance manual to finish.

Scott

The standard cable lube/preservative is Par-al-keton, it remains flexible and self-heals, wipe it on thin.

Tom-

It has been sometime since I did the cables on our B17restoration but I believe we used one of the LPS formulations in and aersol can. I'm not sure if Peralketone (sp?) is still around.

One other thing as an earlier poster mentioned...be sure to reference AC41.13.1b. Run a rag over a cleaned cable to detect wire picks to find broken cables. It is important to do this with cable disassembled from the aircraft and take the loose ends to form a horseshoe shape at the radius approximating the smallest pulley diameter. do this along the entire length of the cable. This will allow you to find weak/broken wire inside the wire bundle that might not otherwise be found. We discovered a substantial problem with portions of the B17 rudder cable by this method.