Skybolt
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2020
- Messages
- 31
- Reaction score
- 14
Yesterday I landed my new to me j3 and experienced violent shimmy. I heard a snap and off into the weeds I went. Examination showed the large bolt that passes through the front of the leaf spring had ripped out. But we cannot find any of the hardware it was attached to??? Looks like a plate of some kind was bolted to the bottom of the fuselage but it's now gone, likely in the weeds. We don't understand what even held this plate on but we do see six holes that suggest it had a bracket inside? We cannot find that either.
What I suspect it should have is two cross tubes welded to the longerons with a plate welded between them. That plate should have a hole for the bolt to pass through. If I'm not mistaken that's how a super cub is configured. To do this I would have to remove the fabric so that it doesn't catch on fire during welding. Naturally I'm reluctant. I thought I would ask you folks if anyone has a drawing showing how the J3 leafspring is supposed to be attached to the fuselage. Thanks for the help
What I suspect it should have is two cross tubes welded to the longerons with a plate welded between them. That plate should have a hole for the bolt to pass through. If I'm not mistaken that's how a super cub is configured. To do this I would have to remove the fabric so that it doesn't catch on fire during welding. Naturally I'm reluctant. I thought I would ask you folks if anyone has a drawing showing how the J3 leafspring is supposed to be attached to the fuselage. Thanks for the help
