PA30 gear housing / trunnion?

[Mike Gough]

New here, from South Africa.

A quick search of this forum did not seem to help, but be patient with me if the info is out there...

I have a beautiful example of a'65 twin Comanche, with only 2700 hrs (TT!)
that I use for personal use and at my flight school.

The L/H main gear housing (which I believe is incorrectly referred to as a trunnion) is cracked at the web, so I need a replacement. I have tried numerous local and US salvage yards, with the Piper part number, and no luck so far.

Anyone out there with a helpful parts supplier?

[N3322G]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the Forum. Met Your Tribe Chief at a tech educational fly-in here. Nice guy.

Thanks to the efforts of the Australian Tribe, there are new trunnions available. I only know the USA contact as they are now STC'd here. It is Pat Barry but you might try the Aussie Tribe for a direct contact.

I don't know what the SA regs are for this type of part. If they don't allow a new one, I had mine repaired with a USA welder but the travel downtime for you would be significant - but he does great work and stands behind it.

Hope this helps.

[patbarry]

Mike:

You don't mention if your aircraft is on the US register or the South African register. If it is on the US register then the reply and the procedure is easy - you can use the new trunnions from Australia, or you can send the existing one to S & B Industries in Salt Lake City for a weld repair - they do a nice job. S and B is an authorized repair station and has an approved repair procedure for this function. If your plane is on the South Africa registry then I'd need to know the SA regs for a repair procedure - so you need to research this. If the SA regs allow you to use S and B Industries then airfreight your cracked trunnion to them with confidence.

Alternatively, there are trunnions offered on EBay - they are offered from a PA24 but are the same trunnions as used on the PA30 so if you want to go that route then you can do so.

If you can use the Australian trunnions - Manfred Melloh in NSW handles the sales for these for the Aussie ICS Tribe - simply, in Australia they were doing weld repairs that were substandard and CASA (similar to the FAA) chose to disallow their weld repairs and the Aussie tribe had Jandakot (a plane builder there) carve a new trunnion out of a solid block of aluminum and is a very nice result. If money is no object then buy the Aussie trunnions but the S and B weld repair is a good repair and a lot cheaper. The Aussie trunnion is a bit heavier than the Piper original so you might consider one for each side (nobody mandates this, but it makes sense).

The Aussie trunnion has an Australian STC and PMA. The Aussie Tribe (with a little help from their friends) were granted an STC over here in the United States so any US registered aircraft owner can import the Aussie trunnion from Australia. Just to be clear, we have not heard of the United States PMA being granted yet, but that is not an issue here if the aircraft owner/operator simply orders and imports the trunnion himself. The PMA (parts manufacturing authority) is necessary here only when a reseller wants to order them for resale - if the owner wants to import the trunnion here and have his mechanic install it on his plane then he may do so without a PMA since the STC has been granted in the United States.

So, you have three alternative:
a) S and B Industries in Salt Lake for an approved repair;
b) Manfred Melloh in New South Wales, Australia for a purchase of the Aussie trunnion;
c) Buy a used one on EBay

If I can assist directly, please email me on 26981@att.net

Pat Barry

[Kristin Winter]

Webco may have some trunnions for sale as well. A few years ago they got some new ones at a Piper auction, but may have sold those. You can contact Webco at 316-283-7929.

[9089P]

Hi Mike,

The week before the 4th of July holiday we discovered that our left trunion was cracked. At that time I called Webco, and Comanchegear in hopes of buying a trunion as time was short and I wanted the a/c to go east.

Webco has no trunnions, old, new or anything. John recommended S&B.

Matt at comanchegear did have a trunnion although not an exact match for the 260B.

I then called S&B and spoke to Bruce. After explaining the problem he gave me very clear instructions on what to send him for repair and I overnighted the trunnion to them. One week later we had it back and the repair was spectacular. The web was removed and replaced with a web at least double in thickness, the two clamps (gear spring and squat switch) were modified to accomodate the thicker web and the whole thing was repainted. Looks beautiful and my guess it will not break again. The repaired piece was plug and play and no leaks.

Cost was $995 plus shipping. Phone # for S&B is 801-261-4076.

Good luck, Don

[Mike Gough]

Many thanks for all this info.

I am still in a mild state of confusion about our South African CAA accepting a repair - Pat is kindly getting involved on that one. Thanks Pat!

I may have located one in Florida, they use a different part number 20752-008

I will (hopefully) purchase this unit, and then send my cracked one to the folks mentioned in the previous posts for repair. If our CAA has a problem with this, then I will possibly offer it for sale in the US - but maybe this could be a test case to get this type of repair approved here in South Africa.

These parts are definitely in short supply, as I have really struggled to track this one down.

[Kristin Winter]

Have you tried www.piperspares.com? They are in Britain and advertise on their website that they have strut housings.

[Mike Gough]

Thanks again - I found one in Florida, which I have received at the hotel. Should have it installed on Monday, and get my cracked unit off for repair.

Will also chamfer the hole in the web as detailed in Comanche Tips.