1. RR the right wheel bearing and race. I saw it...confirmed.
2. New rotors and pads L and R. Below minimums.
The main wheels installed on that airplane are of a three piece variety. The disc (rotor) and stamped steel inner/outer flanges are attached to the center hub with six allen headed capscrews. The early hubs were magnesium and very prone to cracking, the later ones and replacements were made of aluminum and less prone to cracking. While I could not find any cracks in the hubs (the fairings were off) I was just looking with a bright light at an assembled wheel installed on the airplane. One would be wise while the wheels are off, to disassemble them and clean the hubs and dye penetrant them for cracks in the radius where the webs meet the outer part of the hub which is at each bolt hole. They also tend to crack thru the bolt holes. There are no parts available for these wheels except for bearings and rotors, so if they are cracked you will need to plan on a conversion to Clevelands via a Cessna service kit (Cleveland no longer markets the conversion kit, it is only available thru Cessna). The nose wheel is a two piece wheel, incorrect for this airplane (but quite functional, and truthfully, not worth worrying about), probably installed when either the nose wheel hub cracked or when the airplane was damaged.
Don't waste money on bearings if the hubs are cracked.
They did not find loose fasteners in the belly landing gear structure as Chuck suggested. In fact, two AP's rechecked while I was there today. Landing gear is fine and no evidence of hard landings.
The owner you bought it from may have fixed this. I showed them to him. It was a row of phillips head screws running fore/aft just inboard of the RH gear leg, partially under the streamline fairing where the leg meets the fuselage. About six screws, all turned with a screwdriver and had evidence of streaking from being loose.
Right muffler (that provides carb heat) has cracks and has been re-welded too many times...replace it.
I really didn't like the mufflers either.
The airplane was owned by an aircraft salvage firm in Griffin, GA (Knights Airparts, now out of business) at one time, and I never knew them to own a complete airplane......... Thats the most I can say about that, anything else would be speculation.
Does the rudder trim tab still look like a jib sail off an old sailing ship? I never could spot both of the rudder springs, one but not the other, didn't want to go disassembling interior trim to find it on a prebuy, but with a mirror, I could not see it. I think this explained the rudder tab.
It really IS a nice airplane. Its just that the buyer I was looking at it for could not reconcile the price with what I found, so he passed. The seller is a Delta engine shop mechanic, and apparently runs a real thriving helicopter maintenance business on the side with his brother. I was impressed with what he was doing on helios.
Get it squared away to your satisifaction and go fly, enjoy it............
Charles
