After landing today I did a normal walk around inspection of the plane and found this ugly crack in my spinner. Thankful that nothing came apart while in flight. Is this spinner toast? Can it be repaired? I haven't looked into replacement costs yet but I suspect it won't be cheap. Anybody know? BTW this is fixed pitch.

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/images/originalphotos/1169/4688/d15985aa1b0734a2ccdb1d32.jpg

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/images/originalphotos/1169/4688/8eabc6c81ffea3328eda7d4c.jpg

Unfortunately it is toast.

The alloy those things are made from is difficult to weld, and that particular spot has a doubler spot welded behind it which makes a weld repair even more difficult.

From the looks of those fancy washers maybe you have some oversized holes? Those holes are most likely at least partially to blame for the crack. Holes thru the backing plate should fit fairly tight to keep the thing from wobbling.

Spinners are expensive.

Halestorm wrote:Unfortunately it is toast.

The alloy those things are made from is difficult to weld, and that particular spot has a doubler spot welded behind it which makes a weld repair even more difficult.

From the looks of those fancy washers maybe you have some oversized holes? Those holes are most likely at least partially to blame for the crack. Holes thru the backing plate should fit fairly tight to keep the thing from wobbling.

Spinners are expensive.

Yea, no doubt it will be pricey. That's a given. Wondering what is the best source to get me another one. Any big deal removing it and flying without until I find a replacement?

whynotfly wrote:

Halestorm wrote:Unfortunately it is toast.

The alloy those things are made from is difficult to weld, and that particular spot has a doubler spot welded behind it which makes a weld repair even more difficult.

From the looks of those fancy washers maybe you have some oversized holes? Those holes are most likely at least partially to blame for the crack. Holes thru the backing plate should fit fairly tight to keep the thing from wobbling.

Spinners are expensive.

Yea, no doubt it will be pricey. That's a given. Wondering what is the best source to get me another one. Any big deal removing it and flying without until I find a replacement?

It's very easy to remove the spinner and backing plate and fly without it but I don't believe it's legal to, however it has been done before.

Spinners on 172s are considered part of the cooling system and are required.


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Check Wentworth, barnstormers or eBay. Hopefully $500 or less. Tough part is finding the exact part number. That's where Wentworth might be the fastest source.


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Not a 172, but mine cracked when the front bulkhead started coming apart. Got it welded at a shop that said they welded hundreds, especially Navajos. Replaced the front bulkhead and it's been fine for the last 15 years.

When I bought my first 205, the spinner had just been returned from getting repaired and painted. It had a crack somewhere. Beegles in CO was doing the work. It would be worth a call to them to see who they used and ask if it can be salvaged. Nothing to loose. Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback.

Try Univair, too. http://www.univair.com/categories/propellers/spinners.html. If they have your model, you're in luck. I've had spinners for 182s and a 206 weld repaired by a certified welder in Georgia (http://www.spinner-repairs.com/). The last time, shipping from the west coast about killed me. By the time I done, I was close the cost of a new purchase, from Cessna.

CAVU

Grassstrippilot wrote:When I bought my first 205, the spinner had just been returned from getting repaired and painted. It had a crack somewhere. Beegles in CO was doing the work. It would be worth a call to them to see who they used and ask if it can be salvaged. Nothing to loose. Good luck!

+1 on Beegles. Call Scott Mauch there, at nine seven oh, three five three, ninety two hundred. If they have a good used one, you can count on the price being reasonable. If they don't have one, he'll know where to get one.

Cary

Update: It turns out that this particular spinner is a custom made spinner (just my luck) on account that this is a DelAir 180hp upgrade and for their STC they incorporated a custom spinner and relatively few are made, and you know what that means. Replacement cost? When I asked the DelAir rep how much $$ for replacement, he asked me if I was sitting down. Not what I wanted to hear. The next thing I heard was even worse. He quoted me $2,000 for the new spinner kit which includes the backing plate (nothing sold separately). Oh but good news! He said for me he would discount it to $1,700. "Oh, only $1,700?". #@*#%$!! Oh, don't forget another $200 or so to have a A&P remove the prop for the backing plate.

Not all is lost. After trying to wrap my mind around the idea of shelling out $2,000 because of a 2 1/2 inch crack in my spinner (there goes the engine monitor) I gave ASEI Spinner repair (thanks for the idea), and emailed them some pictures. They said they could indeed repair it for $550 and change. It is now on its way to Georgia for repair. With shipping costs it will run me around $700, but still an easier pill to swallow than $2,000. Thanks for all the input and ideas.

Wow! Man, I'm so glad you were able to get a cheaper option! Once again proof of how valuable this site can be.


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What ever happen to stop drill and wait for annual....good enough for crankcase should work for spinner
Kenmore Beavers had problems with 3 bladed prop spinner backing plate cracking in the old days.

Does Stop Drilling "date" some of us?

DonC wrote:What ever happen to stop drill and wait for annual....good enough for crankcase should work for spinner
Kenmore Beavers had problems with 3 bladed prop spinner backing plate cracking in the old days.

I posted pictures of the damage at top of this thread. Because of the size of the crack, a very small portion, about 1/8 of an inch of one side of the crack at the beginning of the crack was making contact with the prop when engine was running. I noticed this once I removed the spinner. This is a very big spinner, and the thought of it coming apart while in flight was not something I wanted to experience.

I just got my repaired spinner back from ASEI. They did a real nice job on it. They welded up the crack and also closed up a few of the screw holes that had apparently oval'd out due to vibration which caused the crack in the first place. They also polished it up real nice. I saved about $1,400 over getting a new spinner kit.

The learning process with plane ownership just never ends. I now know that the spinner is not just a cosmetic thing that covers the prop hub. Not only is it required to direct air flow into the cylinders, but it is something that should be a part of your preflight inspection. Checking the spinner for loose screws or cracks was never part of my preflight. It is now. I only caught this one by chance following a flight, doing a general walk around and just happened to notice the significant crack. I feel that I was only a flight or two from the spinner coming apart in flight and causing who knows what kind of havoc. It's a large spinner for a 172. Look at a Mooney spinner to see the size. Would not want that thing hitting the windshield.

Glad it worked out. I make it a habit to wipe down the plane after every flight, which includes the spinner. A good way to keep tabs on the exterior of the plane.


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DonC wrote:What ever happen to stop drill and wait for annual....good enough for crankcase should work for spinner
Kenmore Beavers had problems with 3 bladed prop spinner backing plate cracking in the old days.

Once upon a time I had a problem with a spinner... one of the nut plates for the screws that hold the spinner to the main backplate got a little bit stripped. It would still hold part way in the stripped nut plate, it just wouldn't tighten all the way down hard before popping one thread backwards. Very wisely, I made a mental note to myself that I would have to replace the nut plate when I got back later. What a smart, wise, brilliant young pilot I was, to think about those tiny details.

So I took off from my home airport (KWHP in the northern part of Los Angeles), and I got precisely seven miles from the airport when I saw a blue flash and heard a gunshot. Immediately the airplane began shaking up and down so hard that my hand came off the stick. For some reason, certainly a miracle of brain processing speed in the mind of such a clever and handsome aviator, I remembered that this airplane was not equipped with a "safety cable" that wrapped around the crankcase and bolted to the firewall/upper longeron connection. (we were required to have those on the race planes, but this airplane was an RV-3 sportplane). It was pretty obvious that in a few seconds the engine could shake itself off of the front of the airplane.

Having just recently been a contest pilot in gliders at that time, I was willing to shut off the mags first and deal with the glider aspect later. So I shut the mags off with one swat (two toggle switches). The rest of the story, the river bed, the pay phone, the Sheriff's Department, the newspaper, the 8 hour disassembly and transporting it all back home at 3 in the morning, is another story.

The point of this rant is only that the spinner has a lot more force on it that you might think, and that a crack, stripped nutplate, or broken fastener... can become a much bigger problem than you want it to be. I know a l ot of you guys have a lot more field experience than I do, but "Stop-drill and keep flying" is definitedly not something I can recommend !

Here's a page from my website that has a (really grainy lo-res scan copy) photo taken by the reporter, bottom right. You have to look closely to see that a good size piece of the propeller blade is missing.

http://www.grantstar.net/index.php/avia ... ories.html

whynotfly wrote:I just got my repaired spinner back from ASEI. They did a real nice job on it. They welded up the crack and also closed up a few of the screw holes that had apparently oval'd out due to vibration which caused the crack in the first place. They also polished it up real nice. I saved about $1,400 over getting a new spinner kit.

The learning process with plane ownership just never ends. I now know that the spinner is not just a cosmetic thing that covers the prop hub. Not only is it required to direct air flow into the cylinders, but it is something that should be a part of your preflight inspection. Checking the spinner for loose screws or cracks was never part of my preflight. It is now. I only caught this one by chance following a flight, doing a general walk around and just happened to notice the significant crack. I feel that I was only a flight or two from the spinner coming apart in flight and causing who knows what kind of havoc. It's a large spinner for a 172. Look at a Mooney spinner to see the size. Would not want that thing hitting the windshield.

You've also learned that the spinner is a very fragile piece of aluminum (or Kevlar or carbon fiber, etc.), and the single most frequent cause of damage to either the spinner or its back plate is someone pushing on it while trying to push the airplane backwards. I've also seen students or low-timers push up on a spinner to flex the nose gear strut to make sure it's properly inflated. If it's not possible to move the airplane with just a towbar, then any pushing or pulling of the prop area should be done on a blade very near the hub, but never on the spinner.

Cary

My "repaired Spinner" has failed again. This is a custom spinner from Del Air that had cracked and was then repaired, but now its failing again and I think it is beyond repair. If there is anyone who knows about another spinner that might work with this set-up please let me know. The Del Air replacements are too expensive and besides, it would likely fail again. It is a huge spinner with no forward type bracing. Its a 59 172 with a 0360 A1A conversion with fixed pitch prop. This type of spinner utilizes the bulkhead in the back (not mounting plate right behind the prop). The mounting bulkhead plate is about 12.9 inches in diameter. I suspect that there is another spinner set-up that would work, maybe with a mounting plate right behind the prop (smaller spinner).