No joy on looking for SB-78-16, either by web search engine or searching the Cessna service document web page looking for airbox, carb or intake. If anybody can track it down and post it, that’d be great.

F Atlee Dodge said they had 4 boxes ahead of me, and would need at least one month turnaround. They wanted pictures before giving me a rough estimate, which I sent. I haven’t heard back in 2 days.

Joe Rogg’s phone isn’t available and his voicemail is full.

Cessna support called with the P/N for the upper skin: 0750126-3 and Cessna had 3 in stock, $780 at Yingling. I ordered one to see if it fits - the welded area on my box gives me some concern - I’ll send it back if it looks to difficult to cut out the old one. I also checked to see if Cessna sold a -9 replacement door as mine has some fretting wear; they do not, as it’s no longer “available”. I’ll prob lay a weld bead in that spot. That should be relatively easy to fabricate should it come to that, though.

jrc111 wrote:No joy on looking for SB-78-16, either by web search engine or searching the Cessna service document web page looking for airbox, carb or intake. If anybody can track it down and post it, that’d be great.

PM sent.

Chris

Got to remember there are several different air boxes for 180's. The early one like I have, the 1956 to I think 1959 and then the later that uses that stainless top piece. I had a guy rebuild my early one and he did a great job on the skins but we used the old needle bearings and they are getting loose. I think McFarlane has some kind of composite bearing that sounds like it is much better. I also added a second brace on my early since there is a lot hanging on the carburetor compared to the later ones.

I sent a copy of SE78-16 “Induction Systerm Improvements” to the knowledge base. Thanks, Chris!

jrc111 wrote:I sent a copy of SE78-16 “Induction Systerm Improvements” to the knowledge base. Thanks, Chris!

I just tried to find it via the "knowledge" button. No joy.
???

Zane acknowledged receiving it; there’s prob a delay getting it in the system.

Received the new upper skin from Yingling and took the old one off.

The front of the upper skin was spot welded, and I used a mini-mill and an end mill cutter to remove the welds:



On the right rear, the upper skin had been welded to the right side skin, and I wasn’t careful enough pulling the upper skin away, tearing a chunk off the right skin:



Additionaly, the upper skin carb flange rivet holes were wallowed out, and there was another crack.

I didn’t want to spend another $800 replacing the right skin if I could help it, so I fabricated a curved piece of 0.050” 5052-H32 to fit over the gap, long enough to pick up the adjacent rivet holes, and TIG tack-welded the piece in place, just enough to provide an air seal. The 5052 was easy to weld, but the side skin was very touchy despite media blasting, brake cleaner fluid and stainless bristle brushing. I Cherry-Max’d the rivets around the corner bracket so I wouldn’t have to take that out and put it back together again. The forward upper skin was riveted with flush -3’s. The collar had an additional four -3 universal head rivets placed per SE78-16. Thanks for the info, Chris!



Along the way I installed McFarlane’s CCH-KT-8 Carb Heat Repair Kit. The old shaft and bearings were very worn. Of note, the Monel rivets provided in the kit appeared to be too long, and were very hard, and my only attempt toe-nailed badly. Accordingly, I removed the offending rivet and tapped the shaft door holes to 6-32 and secured the door with Loctited AN steel screws and steel locknuts, just like the old door was secured to the shaft.

Anyone have a parts breakdown of Airbox 0750126-21? Looking for part numbers for the side skins more specifically. Thanks!

I checked the ipc, all they show is the p/n for the airbox assembly itself-- airbox p/n 0750126-21 fits c180 s/n 32151 -50661.
Dunno where youd find a breakdown of the airbox subparts, or if they even have p/n's.

Call Cessna support; that’s how I got the P/N for the -3 “skin, upper”. Or, look up the references to 075126- at https://aeroval.com/ref/?search=cessna&pg=1147. The whole box was $8800 back when I started this thread. Apparently, back then I found a reference that 0750144-33 is substitutable; there’s a couple of those, not exactly the same, on ebay now. The Yingling site is down this weekend, and that’s probably where the substitute reference came from.

Reading this thread, I'm sure glad I bought this airbox that is really hard to find for a $100 at Dead Cow airport in Wichita back in 1998. Seems like I remember pricing a new one that is for 1956 to 58 or 9 for $1,200 back then and mine was not even available anymore.

That’s a fairly complex part to make, too. It’s like the Cessna engineers never designed a part with one bend when they can use a hydraulic press and 3 bends to do the same job. Hopefully, you’ll never need it for your aircraft, and you can pass it down to family, where it’ll be worth $20K in a few years!

Just wanted to say thanks for posting your work and findings with your airbox repair. Going through this myself right now and just ordered the same topskin part number to fix mine (which is waaaayyyy more screwed up than yours was).

I did contact Joe Rogg (Airbox Doc) today and we had a good chat about airboxes. Turns out the parts that he normally uses and some of the STC's mentioned above don't really work with these earlier boxes. Not sure when the change was, but I'm betting in the '59 vintage. He was very helpful in offering to supply me with some of the heat door baffling that I can't seem to find on Spruce anyway, despite me not actually using his services.

I ordered my top-skin part through AirPower and they said that "Witchita" had only one left...not a 100% sure what that means, but I do know it means I'll be getting mine

If you don't mind, do you have a source or p/n for the airbox to carb gasket?? I can't seem to find it from the parts manual. Maybe the same as the carb to engine gasket??

Thanks!

Aaron

Try this:

http://spenceraircraft.com/continental- ... asket.html

X2 Dynamic Propeller work was not great. Simple things like, toe nailed and under-bucked.

My '55 airbox shit the bed. I spoke to Joe Rogg, the airbox doc and I'm about to ship my old one off to him for a quick rebuild. He wouldn't give me a quote over the phone. These things are unobtainium.

He was the first person I called - and he says he has one that he can rob skins from and rebuild mine and work on it immediately. Should I also contact Atlee Dodge, or Airplanes, or Dynamic Propeller?

Is this the right call you think?

Aircraft Spruce is selling some new manufacture boxes, would one of those work?

That think looks remarkably worn out, you got your money’s worth for sure

They list something in their web site but say "no stock." I called and spoke to a sales person and she couldn't find a part number for it - even when given the assembly part number from the cessna parts catalog. They told me to call cessna and see if I can get a part number.

I called Atlee Dodge - they are currently 2 months out before they can even look at it. Didn't bother asking how much it would cost to rebuild.

Halestorm wrote:Aircraft Spruce is selling some new manufacture boxes, would one of those work?

That think looks remarkably worn out, you got your money’s worth for sure

Another update. I called Cessna/Textron to get the top skin part number that I need. Support guy said they were still selling them, and transferred me to parts. Parts guy said they sold the last one in 2018 and will not make any more. They have destroyed the dies.

Sheet metal skills are in my future.... I can see it now...

Halestorm wrote:Aircraft Spruce is selling some new manufacture boxes, would one of those work?

That think looks remarkably worn out, you got your money’s worth for sure

Everything I've ever seen from Spruce is carefully described as "Not for use on certificated aircraft".....

MTV