I just stripped the paint off of the rudder hinges of 9069P only to find a frightning discovery. Two out of three were cracked with only 3900 hours on the frame. To me this is just as alarming as the torque tube horn cracks. even more so because this is on my airplane. These cracks were not visable before the paint was removed.

Comments and or help locating replacement hinges would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Kris Michel

Kris... Agree that it is a concern... root cause is poor quality control at Piper... pushing a bearing into an undersized hole in the casting a the time of manufacture.

I know that Cliff at Heritage Aero had several pieces in inventory a few months back... www.heritageaero.com. Williams Airmotive in Indiana replaced mine (that were cracked) when I had some work done on the rudder in Januaray of this year ... they might have some too.

All the best!
Jim

Denny Haskins has a fix for this...

I think that the fix you are referring to is Denny's repair to the rudder spar. I hadn't heard that he had a repair for a cracked rudder hinge brackett. Now it wouldn't surprise me if Bruce at S&B Industries could repair these successfully.

Thank you Mulefly. I have my new hinges now and I am moving on with my Comanche project.
SixNinerPapa

Hey Kris,

I could've saved you a bit of time on this if you had left me your phone number when you left the voicemail.
I was in Texas when you called and didn't have any of my paper phone books with me. Glad it turned out OK for you. While you have those hinges off ( and the rudder), check the rudder spars where they mate with the hinge bracket for wear in the corners of the mounting surfaces. Might as well since you're this far. Denny H. does have a repair for this if you find anything.

I will be around this week if you want me to come by for a minute.

Later, Mike