Warbird Information Exchange

Good Morning

I recently started an annual inspection on our Fairchild 24, and I found some troubles with the tail wheel.
I was hoping if somebody over here has some good ideas for some alternatives of share some light regarding the tail wheel assy to be original yes or no.
On the pictures you can clearly see that I have a 10 “ tire which is in pretty bad shape but when I took the whole thing apart, I found all bearings and bearing cups where broken and took a pretty large amount of punishment for some reason. The rim was cracked on multiple spots where the bearing cups are installed and also cracked around the edge where a retaining ring holds a piece of the rim together to this split type design.
I was hoping if somebody has some experience with solid rubber tires instead of these inner tube types, and what would be better.
The feeling that I get from all this damage is that the bearings are placed to close together not able to cope with the relatively large amount of forces created by this heavy lady
Also the fact that the bearing housing almost raised out of the material does not surprise me that the material cracks around it, all in all I think this type of wheel assy might not be ideal for the Fairchild 24

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Lady, you want me to answer you if this old airplane is safe to fly? Just how in the world do you think it got to be this old?

The questions I'd ask about it are-
Did it have any tailwheel shimmy?
Part time in service?
A/C usage, does it spend time landing off in the bush?

Then you have "Old Airplane Syndrome".
Your at the mercy of past operations and what ever ham fisted mechanic ever worked on it in the past 70 yrs.

The nut that secures the wheel to the axle may have been over tightened in the past.
To crack a bearing cup is pretty rare with the types I deal with.

I would replace it and keep a close eye on it at each annual.
You can research if their is different makers of the 10"sc rims and compare the units.
Try to get a NOS one if you can.

Good Luck.

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Rich Palmer

Remember an Injured Youth
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I have a 10SC wheel in much better shape than what you have. The cups are in it. I'd go with nut overtightening as the culprit for this one, probably cranked down hard because of a bad or worn set of bearings.

One can never suspect too much the cheapness of former owners as the origin of maintenance issues....

....that's my excuse when I find something I cheaped out on that caused a maintenance issue.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

I agree. Also, if someone doesn't understand why shimmy happens, they might be tempted to tighten the axle nut to try to stop that shimmy -- which of course won't do anything but damage things if over-done.

These tailwheels work fine, generally. I'd suggest you scrap that one and find another that isn't cracked.

You didn't mention -- have you been flying it, and does the tailwheel shimmy?

I posted photos of my own F-24W tailwheel servicing here, viewtopic.php?f=16&t=24344&start=525

Dave

10"SC tail wheels are also used on early T-6s, Wirraways, P-36 and early P-40s, which are all much heavier than the F-24.
I would be looking at Dave's suggestions.

No, I have been busy with the plane for almost 3 years 2 times a month so I almost re corrected everything I removed to a point I almost got sad of all the shameful things I found But indeed, this looks to be incompetent behavior regarding maintenance once again. I was just wondering if it was the right type but hearing all of your stories I am more than happy to once again correct this issue with a same type design wheel assy. The plane already flew just for about 3 hours in the past 3 years and I have never heard of shimmy complaints from the pilots, a small miracle if you see the shape of the tire alone.
Thanks for all the advice people.

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Lady, you want me to answer you if this old airplane is safe to fly? Just how in the world do you think it got to be this old?