Huey, UH1M

[WillWagner]

First post in the aircraft forum! Whoda thunk I would be tinkering on something that flew! This has zero airframe hours on it. It was once a Gate Guard at Ft. Ord?

This was put in place in place around 1993 ish. Has not been shown much love.

I always knew something was missing and today, I asked, found the pieces parts, gave them a bit of love and a chemical overhaul, and tomorrow, barring issues, will have the last part in place to make it LOOK good!

This airframe has ZERO hours left in it, so what I will be doing is for looks only.

This is a gunship, there are panels that show "how many rockets left" and a bunch of ammunition feed things. I think there are MG mounts. I THINK we have rocket pods somewhere on the property, I will ask about those. I will take pics soon.

Remember, I am a diesel mechanic, so, the nomenclature I use is probably wrong!

What I saw missing were/was the "counter weights" for what I think is the stabilizer bar assy, one weight and tube was in the cabin, the other was still attached to the centerframe out in the dirt under a giant propeller from a ship.
I got all of it back into the shop and started making things "work". The only real issue, besides being corroded horribly, was that the support bracket and bearing on one side was stuck. All of the other joints were free and just needed cleaning. I removed the remaining weight and tube to lighten things up, filled the Heim joints with grease, got them smmoooth, and removed the stuck support/bearing. Easy-peasy, cleaned the roller bearing and sleeve, lubed it and re assembled it. Now all of the joints are smooth.

Gave it a good cleaning and a "chemical overhaul" Also cleaned up the tubes and weights, gave them a shot of overhaul in a can.

More pics to follow. I did climb up top to check out the pillow block and the swashplate links...I think that's what they are....some hardware is missing, but since it isn't gonna fly, I think I can find stuff to make it look complete.

I would LOVE to hook a small electric motor to it and make the main and tail rotors spin, but it isn't my ballgame!

 

[williamh]

That would nice sitting in front of my legion

 

[Guyfang]

Living the dream!

 

[ToddJK]

Helicopters are cool AF either way, whether it's just for show or operational. From what I heard, getting it ready and inspected can be a pricey process as well as getting the license to fly it, but that is just too cool, lol.

 

[WillWagner]

Again, this will never fly again. Airframe is timed out. This saw combat in Viet Nam, came home, was a trainer and a mess of other stuff. I understand it received some damage while in VN. There are patches all over the place. The rocket pod mounts are covered up, sometime in the future, we will try and uncover them. We have some pods, but no mounts. Might be something to fab up!

Here are some pics of todays work.

It now stands out above the other vehicles!

 

[WillWagner]

Just to give you an idea how BIG the main rotors are....I had no idea they were this big. From the ground, they don't look this big!

 

[WillWagner]

Some images of the 40MM mount and controls

 

[WillWagner]

More....If you notice in the first pic, the channels are stuff here in So. Cal. This was stationed at Los Alamitos, Ca.

 

[WillWagner]

This was a CA ANG unit at the last phase of it's life. When the Huey was flown to it's final resting place, the pilot decided to "procure" a piece of his chopper. Years later, he visited the Museum, saw this beast, REALIZED that it was his bird, came back and gave us this, among other items!

I worked on the tail rotor today also, didn't take pics, but if you look in one of the first pics that show the tail, you can see that the rotor blades are turned opposite of each other. Took some lubie doobie and a strap wrench, but I got the blades spinning freely and got them hooked up to the controls and they actually work! All of the links for the collective are hooked up, there is a transmission still in this. The rotors are, I think, stuck in the grips. and the transmission will not spin, it USED to though.

Future plans include trying to free up the rotors in the grips, free up the transmission....this might be an opportunity to hook up am electric motor!!!!.....and make things spin. Maybe make som rocket pod mounts, maybe mock up a 40mm BBL and stick it out the nose. MAYBE add afake door gun.

Pics of the "liberated" item!

 

[WillWagner]

Today, just a bit more love to her. In the past week, some of the volunteer kids gave the rear crew compartment a good cleaning as well as the instrument panels and gave the floor a nice coat of paint. It looks VERY nice! I decided to install the seat frames that have been laying on the floor for a hot minute, give the tail guard thingie a bit of color and fix a foot step that the door has been missing from for years. The STEP door has been gone for a long time. We thought it was "liberated". I opened the door that is the access to the heater and there it was on the bottom of the compartment! I tried bucking the rivets with the door in place, but this thing is fragile! How the hell does these things fly!!??

Anywho, got the STEP door re-installed, using regular pop rivets, got the door aligned, seat frames installed, the chute for the 40MM fun installed and some color on it today!

 

[WillWagner]

A couple of pics from today. One of the volunteers started on the paint prep for the Huey. He sanded and got one primed with an aluminum self etching primer. He worked on the Synchronized Stabilizers only. The right one is heavily corroded, looks to have been hit at some point in it's life due to the buckle on the bottom. The left one looks good on the top surface, but the bottom has a gash in it about 6 inches long. Next week, i'll go around and take pictures and placement measuring of the stencils/markings so after a fresh coat of paint is applied, we can re-apply them.

Did you know that duplicating /making stencils with a stencil machine is VERY time consuming?

 

[WillWagner]

Did a bit more work on the UH1 today. The goal was to try and find out why the main rotor wouldn't turn. First thing to do was to get access to things. The cowls needed to open. A couple of the latches are corroded beyond belief! They are literally just blooming aluminum. I got both of the cowls opened that cover the transmission/collective. The LH side had a frame of some sort wired up to the cowl. When I went to open the rt side, I found out why. The tube that normally holds the opening mechanism in place was gone on the LH side, so I just took it off. VERY light! The rt side would go up, hold in place, but has a broken link. I ended up taking it completely off to fix the issue and it will be easier to paint. The engine cowls just fold back. There was a strip of aluminum in the floor area where the engine would sit. Turns out that was/is the support that goes between the inlet and outlet panels for the engine. Someone had ran a long string of safty wire between the bulkheads to keep them in place. I ended up cleaning and re installing the support along with some side supports that were not connected. All the cowling is now stable. I gave the engine/trans compartments a good blow job to get rid of the dirt, pine needles, critter webs and such to make it so I could see things. The second pic shows the mounts that I re connected to make the engine outlet more stable, they are the 3 links on each side connected to the rear bulkhead.

 

[WillWagner]

After getting things cleaned up, it was time to try and finger out why the rotors wouldn't turn, they USED to. After a bit of wiggling/moving the main rotor around and watching, I saw what one of the couplers for the tail rotor was loose and would bind up when things were turned. I found the 4 bolts loose on that coupler, so I removed them. Went back up to the rotor, gave it a light push the collective swash plate raised up and we had a free spinning main rotor! A bit more looking revealed that there is a fill plug missing from the top gear case at the tail rotor. Possibly a rusted ring/pinion or just crap in the gears. The main rotor rotates easy enough that it rotates with the wind! I was tied down before I left today. I think I can remove a bearing, nut, tail rotor and remove the outer gearcase for the tail rotor. I will find out what's in the gear box tomorrow.

 

[WillWagner]

Here are some pics of the aircraft all opened up...

 

[WillWagner]

And here is a few pics of the 40mm cannon mount cleaned up a bit. It is a dual axis, electrically fired device. We plan to mock up a bbl and put it in. I might be able to fill the chute with some fake rounds too. Gotta go see if I can locate some once fired stuff!

 

[Valley Rock]

You very seldom see the single fan models anymore, that's an oldie, very cool old bird, thanks for sharing !

 

[WillWagner]

It's an oldie, I think early 60's. Might have started life as a C model. It has a small cargo area, small doors. I'll see if I can find some tags today.

Remember I stated that this sustained some airframe damage and was repaired, a couple of times? One of the damage incidents was that the tail was badly damaged. When I was blowing things out, came across these tags. The complete tail assy was replaced at one time.

 

[WillWagner]

Worked on the tail rotor today. WOW, that thing is big too! Close to 10 feet span, not real heavy either. Surprisingly, things came apart quickly and easily. The nut, bearing, dust cover, splined drive thingie, tail rotor nut and the rotor assembly all left their spot with no effort. The gearcase, that was sort of a deal, until I found camouflaged holes! The joint between the input and output geat cases has a gap, probably close to 1/8 wide. I'll fill you in in a second. It is filled with a silicone based sealant. I used a PB Blaster coated razor knife to slice the sealant to try and pry it off. As I was slicing, I noted a spot on the outside "wiggle". That wiggle was the sealant in a jack hole that had been smoothed over. Looked like just a housing to me! Turns out there are three jack holes, 1/4x28 threads. After making this discovery, the output case came off easily, cutting the sealant helped! The reason there is a large gap is because there are shims between the two cases to lash the ring and pinion. As I pulled the case free, the reason for not turning became apparent. Years with no fill plug, out in the open, RAIN getting in the housing, well, rain and aluminum/steel, do not mix. Look at the pics and you'll see what I mean.

The pinion was covered in aluminum corrosion as was the lower bearing. The upper, just rusty, but not too bad. The ring and output case looked bad, all covered in corrosion, the case blooming, but not up to the bearing area.

I started with the input case. Lots of compressed air, lots of white aluminum corrosion came out. PB blaster is your friend, so I gave it a good soaking and let it sit.

Took the output back to the shop, blew it out, needle scaled it and it looked OK. There is a 3/4 square drive in the ring gear shaft, I put a ratchet on it, a little pressure and it broke free and actually spun easily! Gave it a good squirt of PB, blow out, brake clean, blow out then shot some lithium grease through the inner bearing into the outer bearing. Spins easily and quiet!

Back to the Huey, I used a couple of pry bars to get on the pinion gear, gave it a wiggle and it started to move! Put a strap wrench on the drive shaft and it moved a bit more, but still stuck. Gave it a good blow out and re soak then wet to lunch.

15 min later, more work with the pry bars and made progress, the strap wrench broke things loose, it was a tad crunchy, so I blew it out again and gave it another PB shot. This time, I got 2 full turns out of the driveshaft! Hooked the driveshaft back together and used the main rotors to spin things, Spins like ALMOST new! WOOO HOOO! I was gonna needle scale the housing and pinion but the compressor starter rope broke. I called it a day, moved thing back to the shop area.

 

[BLK HMMWV]

Your having way to much fun without me. Nice to see you getting to play with a few things outside your normal . I might have some more linked 40MM stuff. Gave some to Craig Awhile back. Sierra Madre PD still has a nice belt of Dummy 40MM rounds they confiscated from me when we did 4th of July Parade with Craig many Moons ago.

 

[WillWagner]

We were/are planning a trip....but I told you about that. I'll keep you up to speed.

Yeah, it is fun to put hands on things other than the "normal" thing. This is way cool to see how it is made. VERY lightweight, nothing that I am used to. I could do aircraft! Jacobs' job MUST be easy!!

Maybe if I chose aircraft, I wouldn't be all f'ed up right now? Hindsight!!