In my pile of treasures/junk I have run across lower gear legs with 2 different lengths of axle. The axle itself is a different length and the part of the lower gear leg that the axle slides into is different. Does anyone know if the 14-13-3 Cruisair , or the 14-19 has axles that are about 1.5 inches shorter than a 14-13. The tire sits much closer to the gear leg on these lowers. I am thinking that this might be a change that started with the -3 Cruisair. Bellanca paperwork leaves a lot of questions un-answered. ____Grant.
Axle difference on Cruisair and Cruismaster???
- Thread starter gjordan
- Start date
leadsledfan
New member
could this be the difference between original axles and swapped axles for cleveland brakes or some other form of disc brakes?
I looked closely at them yesterday and the lower gear legs are actually different. The welded part that the axle slips into is about 1.5 inches narrower. Between my partner and I , we have plenty of old Cruisair lower legs, but these are different. They put the brake and tire closer to the leg. I am suspecting that the Cruismaster may have made the change, but I dont know. Measuring the axles, the regular Cruisair axle is about 10 inches, but these are about 8.5 inches. They have Bodels on them, so I dont think it has anything to do with Clevelands, but I am just guessing. ____Grant.
I think (guess?) that I have figured it out. I was looking at some old Bellanca prints about landing gear and I see that they list different axles for the 14-19 and the 14-19-2. These were both for Firestone brakes. My thoughts (more guessing) is that the narrower ones are for the _2. I also found a drawing of a retract strut that was for hydraulic gear but had the hinge point below centerline, just like a Cruisair. On the drawing it said (hand written) that the Bellanca factory was still making these for the Cruismaster. This reinforces my long held belief that the first dozen Cruismasters that were actually built by Bellanca had this type of retract strut. The second Cruisair hydraulic gear STC uses this type. I will compare the drawings to see if it appears that the STC just used the early style retract strut from the 14-19. Another SCORE in the game of Bellanca Trivial Pursuit . ___Grant