Installed Tailwheels and ground handling?

T

therewolf333

New member
My Cruisair has a 6" solid tailwheel. The steering without brakes is extremely weak. The bearing is bad and is to be replaced, so I'm planning on converting to a pneumatic. Older photos before I owned it have it with a 8" pneumatic.

What have you got on your Cruisair/master and how is the ground handling?
 
Wolfman, got a Maule P-8 hub and tire on my Cruisemaster. It works great even when flat! LYNN N9818B the crate :shock:
 
I have O.E. (Original Equipment natch) and it's a little sloppy. Reason? The strut faring which also acts as the scissors has bolt holes that are wallowed out and allows the scissors "knee" bolt to wander up, down, side-to-side, wherever :roll: I plan to weld a busing (piece of steel tubing) in the wallowed out holes to cure my wayward scissors.
The rest of the setup is in great shape thanks to Robert Szego's replacement he sold me awhile back.
My tire is a solid type, but Harvey Leydecker, in McCalla, Alabama sold me a pneumatic 6-inch with split hub that fits something like an Army BT-13 :!: originally. He has one other I believe and wants to sell it ASAP. They are in excellent condition. All you need is a valve core. I had that hub originally, but didn't need it because Robert's strut had one on it already, so you should be able to do the whole pneumatic conversion in one whack so to speak. No cutting and welding of the fork needed.
If you want his phone number and address, feel free to contact me off-board. Harvey is a wealth of information on all things Bellanca :D
 
I wimped out and installed a 3200 Scott. Bellanca made a few forks for this conversion and I was lucky that I had one amidst the 29 years of spares the previous owner had collected. It handles well and makes a whole lot more sense than the 3200 on my Luscombe.
 
I wondered why I was dancing on the pedals landing. My tail wheel decided to stay in full caster! I used Russ Williams breakdown of his tailwheel rebuild. I found that the kickout collar and tail post bushings were well worn. AAC had the bushing and it was a resonable 60 bucks, a friend rebushed the kickout, I found there is a c clip inside the outer strut that holds the inner strut. The clip is under the cevron seals and with a very strong light you can find it and pry it out. I don't think this has been apart since 1958. Anyhow after a couple days of swearing, the thing is rebuilt and working fine. Carroll at AAC said he had a breakdown of the tailwheel and was suppose to send it to me with bearing---as of now, I'm still waiting for it. :cry: LYNN N9818B the crate
 
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