Plan to do mine this Fall after my floats are removed. Thanks for showing what's involved.

Thanks again. Did the roll pin in the bottom of the jackscrews seem to be snug? I think McFarlane uses a bigger roll pin since that is what holds things together.

In the original and the McFarlane units, the roll pins were and are tight. The originals weren’t safetied, though.

Replaced the 4 elevator hinge bearings using the nut, bolt & socket method:

I just got a mailer from Preferred Airparts and they brag up on how many parts they have.
I did buy an NOS ( "new old stock") Cleveland wheel from them years ago,
and it was indeed both new and old, but considerably cheaper than a new wheel from the regular sources.
Has anyone checked to see if they have any of the parts needed when rebuilding a 180/185 tail?

I just checked on the hock stick and they didn't have one. I have quite a few parts like bulkheads, cowl flaps form them.

About 15 yrs ago I bought left and right nacelle skins for a Twin Comanche from them. At a reasonable price, too. Even Piper didn’t have them. I haven’t had as much luck with Cessna parts, though. Of course, back then I was actually talking to a human being, instead of doing an online inventory search. Maybe I should go back to using the phone!

Replaced Stabilizer Hinge Teflon busing and metal spacers:



Fabricated bottom stabilizer fairings as the originals were all tore up:



Made another bulkhead cradle to support my weight while crawling back to buck rivets:



I mixed up a fresh batch of Alodine using Iridite and distilled water and prepped the serviceable hockey stick and top shelf from BAS Parts Sales:



The top shelf fits fine, but with the hockey stick I get to choose: fit the rivets or fit the stabilizer hinge hole. The used part won’t do both.

Rivet holes clecoed:



Over 0.090” mismatch:



Talked it over with my IA - $5K part ordered.

Never seen a nylon bushing back there before. Mine has a metal bushing that is held solid with the bolt and the aluminum hinge pivots on the bushing. Too bad about the misfit hockey stick---I wondered how the used part was going to work out and hope the new is undrilled.

Ouch. I agree with Marty. And thank you for taking the time to document with pics.

Flying Dave wrote:....And thank you for taking the time to document with pics.

x2.

The undrilled $5.4K hockey stick arrived. As a part which superseded the original one, I was interested to see any differences. It was the same thickness/length/configuration and vertical width, however, the horizontal flange (when installed) is about 1/8” wider and has a pair of triple holes. It also came with a pair of 8-32 nutplates also of unknown purpose.





I placed the part into the aircraft, after marking where the broken stab hinge hole would go as a reference and secured the hockey stick in place in the tailcone so it would sit true relatve to the other side, the mid-section stiffener and the inner stab brackets.



Next, the skin holes were drilled, countersinking adjusted as needed, drill holes deburred and rivets were placed.

The stab hinge hole was drilled by placing an old stab hinge bushing/spacer so that an AN4 bolt would go thru the inner stab hinge bracket into it, and then clamping the hockey stick to the bracket, capturing the bushing/spacer, so it would serve as a drill guide. A “C” drill was used, and the hole was finish reamed so that a new AN4 bolt would just pass thru it.





Today’s efforts ended with clecoing the salvage top shelf into all the existing holes and match drilling into the hockey stick.



I’m doing what I can by myself until my IA can come over to help. Next step rigging!

Thanks again. You definitely get right with the program-----I'd still be thinking about it and getting my nerve up to drill in that $5,000 part.

Well, I certainly thought about it about 2AM this morning.

$5400 seems crazy expensive for a long piece of angle with a notched joggle at one end!
Is this part aluminum? Heat-treated, hardened, or otherwise made special?
Seems like it wouldn't be that hard (or expensive) to make an exact duplicate.
Dunno the legality though-- "owner produced part" maybe?

I suspect a DER would be needed. It’s certainly not anything I could make with an extrusion and a stretcher/shrinker as there’s an upswept angle, a middle joggle and a bump on the end where the stab bolts in. I suspect it’s press formed in an annealed state, then heat treated. There was a homebuilt version of the C180 called the Super Cyclone which was reverse engineered. It would be interesting to see those plans!

Rigging the stabilator is kind of a pain. The trim wheel is set full nose down, the fwd trim chain is is set so that only 2 links remain aft of the right trim sprocket adjacent to the fuel selector and the actuators are set with a 3/8” drill in the upper end 1” aft of the bulkhead and 4.37” below the stabilator up-block. In my limited experience, the chain guards should be off and the chain doesn’t need to be involved until that adjustment is complete. Then I set the right trim turnbuckle to 3 threads exposed, looped the chain around the right sprocket under slight tension, and then installed the chain guard. The left chain is then engaged on the sprocket so two links are all that’s remaining. In my aircraft, that resulted a tight chain between the two actuators. The chain guard goes on the left once the proper spacing is achieved. Obviously, there is a lot of removing the actuator from its nesting place and putting it back in place gently, and checking that the 4.37” measurement is maintained. Once all that is done, the chain guards are safetied and the left trim turnbuckle was set to 3 exposed threads. A lot easier with the top shelf off.

Full nose down trim:



2 links aft of right sprocket, which is blocked with a piece of nylon:



I fabricated a simple tool to aid in measuring:



Measuring:



Ready to safety:

Great post about the jackscrew rigging. Thank you

silflexer wrote:Great post about the jackscrew rigging. Thank you

What he said.

BREAKING NEWS! The Feb 2003 1962 and prior Service Manual appears to have the cable routing and sprocket description backwards. I tried running the trim cables the way the illustration in section 11 shows and using the description of putting the initial chain setting with 2 links aft of the right sprocket, which resulted in a trim wheel that doesn’t move from the nose down to the nose up setting, basically binding at cable-chain connection. My IA and I thought, well - it’s not working because the right trim chain was routed so it went under the trim wheel, then around the sprocket and aft to the left floor sprocket adjacent to the fuel selector. So, we flipped the chain so it went from the right floor sprocket over the trim wheel sprocket, just like the drawing in Secton 11 - now, the trim works backwards. In retrospect, I remembed having to pull a lot of chain forward, to get 2 links aft of the right floor sprocket.

So, all jacked up! To fix this, it was necessary to remove the just installed stabilizer, remove the chain guards, put the left chain so it was 2 links aft of the left floor sprocket, flip the chains at the trim wheel so the left one goes over the trim wheel sprocket, reset the chains at the jackscrew after again setting the actuator height, reinstall the chain guards and safety wire the chain guards once proper chain spacing was achieved. Tighten turnbuckles and test. Yoohoo! It works properly!

So, I’d suggest viewing that right sprocket 2 links aft thing with a lot of suspicion, and look carefully at how your aircraft trim chains are routed. Consider 2 links aft of the left sprocket and the left chain going over the trim wheel. Prior to redoing the rigging (which is hard going thru the top shelf and easier working thru the service kit access opening), we finished riveting:



Stab, elevators and fin/rudder are back on. Touch up paint, paperwork, some interior and fairings to go on later today - fly tomorrow!