The International Cessna 170 Association

Like trying to get the sick horse out of all 3500 horses (hp!)

Frank,

We often actually tried using a horse whip as a last result before removing that cowling, but it was only moderately sucessful.

Well this weekend the carb came off. Upon opening it up there were floaters in the fuel in the bowl and one piece of crud that blocked the left passage from the bowl to the jet. We cleaned everything out and reinstalled and she ran great today. Thanks everybody for you ideas and help

Thks for letting us know the outcome, often the problem just goes away from the forum and we never find out the solution. In this case it's a validation of why the drain plug on the float bowl should pulled at each annual.

Glad you found the problem Ryan and shared the solution with us.

And a four-place Taylorcraft is a very rare airplane that most people don't even know exists. I've only seen one! I believe around 20 were built, is that right?

Russ Farris

russfarris wrote:Glad you found the problem Ryan and shared the solution with us.

And a four-place Taylorcraft is a very rare airplane that most people don't even know exists. I've only seen one! I believe around 20 were built, is that right?

Russ Farris

Pretty close. There were two 4 place Taylorcrafts. The first is the 15A with the C-145. There were 30 serial numbers assigned although not sure they were all ever built (I've heard 21). Our research shows that ours is one of four 15As left flying. Then there was the model 20 which was the 15a airframe covered with a fiber glass shell that you put together in halves like a model kit. It had a 225hp engine with constant speed prop. The 15A performance wise is virtually the same as 170/172 in terms of speed, gross weight etc... Stalls at 38mph and has slats, so lands pretty short. Model 20 of course similar to 180. Not sure how many 20s still exist but I know less than 5 for sure.

And thanks for the help and I wanted to make sure I let everyone know what the problem was. Maybe it will help someone down the road!

Ryan
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1647/243 ... 5364_c.jpg

tcraftpilot,

Do you happen to know what 225 HP engine was used in the Taylorcraft model 15A that you mentioned above?

My Juptner book has nothing about the models using the fiberglas shell or any other than the 125 and 150 engines. The whole article is kind of skimpy.

Wikipedia

The Taylorcraft Model 20 Ranch Wagon was a four-seat cabin monoplane designed and built by Taylorcraft Aircraft as a development of the earlier experimental Model 18. The Model 20 was constructed of moulded fibreglass over a tubular framework.
Top speed: 160 mph
Weight: 1,625 lbs
Cruise speed: 150 mph
Wingspan: 35′ 0″
Length: 24.34′
Engine type: Continental O-470
First flight: 1955

There is a model 20 on display at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Maire, On, wwwbushplane.com. A very nice museum.

Tim

Richard,

Thanks for that info on the big Taylorcraft. I didn't even think of looking in Wickipedia. I have a set of Juptner, but there is NOTHING on that model. Strange ! I don't believe I've ever realy seen any four place Taylorcraft airplane, They are apparently very rare, It seems to be a pretty good looking airplane too.

To my knowledge all of the model 20 fiberglass taylorcrafts used the continental 0-470. The original 15 which was then modified into the prototype 15A was engined with 150hp Franklin. Taylorcraft then became concerned about the availability of the Franklin and so made provision to engine the airplane with the C-145. To my knowledge all 15As after the prototype had continentals but the Franklin is on the type cert. And they are rare. I have only ever seen one other besides ours. A model 20 was for sale on barnstormer a this past fall. I total there are around 10 flyable (as we know that does not mean flying!) four seat Taylorcrafts. Four are 15As. The rest are model 20s.

Bowl diagnosis

Thankfully you found the problem while on the ground.

You mentioned floaters and crud bumping up against the jet.

Can you go UPSTREAM with the foreign debri?

What exactly was the stuff and where did it come from?

Can I ever hope to prevent what happened in your -145 from occurring in my 145?

Regards

I think you can check you gascolator especially if its glass and see whether there's stuff in it and / or drain into a paper filter. As well the drain plug for the fuel bowl is supposed to be pulled each annual and ditto with the paper if you think there's an issue. What was the stuff is a good question.

Our crud was from sitting I have no doubt. Gas that had varnished. When we bought the airplane we had drained the bowl. We also emptied the tanks and nothing has been showing up in gascolator strainer. In hindsight guess we should have just pulled the carb off and cleaned on the bench rather than the just draining the bowl and cleaning strainer. The airplane had sat almost year and half plus and had nasty gas in the carb when it was drained. So, my advice is fly fly fly and don't let them sit!

What was left of it points to mo gas. The bit of fuel that was in it had turned yellowish and had a bad smell. Now have several trouble free hours on it since cleaning the carb. We run mo gas in ours as we can get ethonal free near us but if one of the airplanes has to sit for any reason for a while we drain our tanks.