The International Cessna^® 170 Association

During annual this past weekend, discovered damage on the aft fuselage bulkhead where the tailwheel pulleys are mounted. I had installed compression springs for appx 2 years and after reading "Tailwheel steering- better turning to the right" (use search and look in "The Hangar"-writtem by gahorn) I decided to reinstall the tension springs. Guess I wasn't fast enough. The lower mounting bolt of the bottom right pulley ripped a horseshoe shaped flapper out of the bulkhead appx 1/2" X 1.5". Needless to say I will only use tension springs from now on. We installed a doubler on both sides of the bulkhead and since we had the tail feathers completely off did a good corrosion inspection and cleaned out any accumulated dirt. Also checked the rudder cables per the Cessna 170 Assc service related manual. (well worth the price by the way) I was planning on doing that this winter anyway. Cables were in excellent shape(Arizona raised 170B-spent most of it's life here)
What gave us a hint that something was wrong was the cable was wearing a groove in the fuselage where it passes out of the tailwheel steering fairlead. Suggest you check this to give you an idea there may be something amiss. You could see the damage thru the the inspection panel at the rh fwd base of the vertical fin but its below the the upper pulley so it's a little hard to see. Give that area a good once over. The elevator mixer(for want of a better description) is mounted from the center of this bulkhead to the left side so it appears that the left side is beefier.

Somebody remind me (Nov 8th) to take a picture of those inspections plates on my 55, located on the fuselage, beside those pulleys. Just take the plates off and work on the pulleys, cables, or clean the inside. Wonderful!