The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.
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Aeronca 7AC
Cracked Wing Spar
A submitter states, The aft righthand spar has a longitudinal crack on the lower end. The crack is located at the strut attach point. (This) spar also shows signs of rotting-inboard of the crack area. No description of this crack or dimensions was provided, nor was there an included part number for the spar.Part Total Time: 4138.1 hours.
Beechcraft Model A-36 Bonanza
Imploded Tip Tank
The airplane was fitted with Osborne Inc. auxiliary fuel tip tanks. The righthand tank (p/n 55000-105) imploded, probably due to a plugged vent. The submitting technician suggested: (1) when parked, keep the vent capped with a pitot-like cover, (2) during preflight…open the gas cap, connect a tube to the -inch vent tube and blow, (verifying) the vent is not plugged. Obviously, a restricted vent should be cleared before flight.Part Total Time: unknown.
Cessna 152
Sinking Carburetor Floats
This respondent describes practicing touch-and-go landings. He had reduced power and turned base when the engine suddenly quit. An uneventful landing was made and, after climbing out of the aircraft, fuel could be seen coming out of the cowling.Further investigation found one of the fuel bowl floats to be -full of fuel, and the other was full. This caused the float to sink and fuel/air mixture to be rich at reduced power settings. (These two events…) caused the engine to flood out and quit on the approach to land.Part Total Time: 509.5 hours.
Cessna 172 RG Cutlass RG
Cracked Landing Gear Actuators
Three separate defect reports were received from the same technician on the same model aircraft. The first report notes the righthand main landing gear would not fully retract. Inspection found the actuator (P/N 9882015-2) cracked at the forward bolt hole. Another aircraft produced a similar defect during a 100-hour inspection for the lefthand retraction actuator, with the same part number: It was not only cracked but the upper forward bolt was found sheared. The third defect report again describes the aircrafts lefthand main gear actuator cracked at the forward bolt hole.The three parts averaged 2150.4 hours time in service.
Piper PA 28-181
Chafed Battery Cable
Routine maintenance found this aircrafts positive battery cable (p/n 78140-39) progressively chafed by a control cables turnbuckle. The turnbuckles sawing motion almost wore through the battery cable insulation jacket, according to the mechanic, who reported, This battery cable was repositioned during the last 100 hour inspection for the same reason. Apparently the cable has taken a set-it keeps returning to its original bend configuration. (My) recommendation is to shorten the cable and to crimp the terminal ends 90 degrees to the lay of the cable.Part Total Time: 1794.8 hours.
