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Hi, I'm looking for a set of steering rods for my 74 model 150L. The Cessna part number is 543022-3 for the left one and 543022-4 for the right one.

http://www.mcfarlane-aviation.com/Products/?CategoryID=124&ID=29063315&PartNumber=MC0543022-4&

http://www.mcfarlane-aviation.com/Products/?CategoryID=124&ID=29063315&PartNumber=MC0543022-3&

Be careful about buying used ones, especially on eBay...
You may get lucky, or else end up buying some one elses junk.
You might find them at a salvage yard, but if going through all the trouble of replacing them ( you'll probably want to do the boots as well) I would recommend installing new ones....

I replaced mine with the Macfarlane ones. They are very nice, and not really that expensive.

Definitely do the boots at the same time. I did mine separately, and it is twice the work to do it that way.

Wish I could find the article in a recent Light Plane Maintenance which discussed replacing the steering rods. The claim is that it will eliminate shimmy (if they are the source.)

Is that why you are replacing them...because of nose wheel shimmy?

Mark, no the reason I'm replacing them is because of very limited nose wheel steering on the ground. I priced them at the Macfarlane website because that is what is on the plane now and I thought they were a bit pricey, $710.00 for the pair. I was hoping to find a used set in good shape for a little less mula.

If your strut is overinflated, you will have very limited steering. Should only have about 3" of chrome showing. Deflate the strut some and see if that helps.

You may want to post a question in the tech forum about diagnosing nose-wheel steering problems.

In a nutshell, the steering in the Cessna 150 is not very direct in a perfectly working system. The steering rods are spring-loaded and only swivel the nose-wheel about 10° either way. Additional travel (up to 30°) occurs with brake input and/or prop-blast over the rudder.

If the nose-strut is over-inflated the strut will extend and lock in the straight-ahead position (as it is supposed to do in flight). Naturally, this will make steering very difficult.

In short, it will not steer like a Piper on the ground. It will feel very 'mushy'.

But post a question in the Tech section for further details and tests.

Before I replaced mine, here is what the symptoms of a worn steering rod were:

When you are taxiing on the ground, the plane will have a tendency to move towards the side of the plane with the stronger steering rod. Most likely, this would be towards the left. The reason it would go to the left is the right rudder pedal is used more than the left (take-off, climbing, etc.), and it tends to wear out the right steering rod first.

The other effect I noticed was when on the roll out after landing. Once the plane had slowed down enough that the rudder was no longer effective, the plane would slowly start to pull to the left. I either had to put the brakes on or put in a little throttle (to get some airflow over the rudder) to straighten the plane on the runway.

For a long time I had mistaken this effect for a bad landing on my part, especially during crosswind landings. Finally, one calm morning I went out specifically to improve my landings to stop this problem. After two or three landings where the plane always veered in the same direction, I realized it was the plane, not me. I then took it to my mechanic and we spent about an hour checking all the rigging before we determined that it had to be the steering rods. I replaced both of them with the Macfarlane ones.

By the way, after removing the bad one, I pushed on the rod to see how weak the spring was, and it was still surprisingly strong. It just wasn't as strong as the other one, so the plane still turned to the left.

I would be leery about changing them with some used ones, based on my experience. You may find uneven spring tension and have ground control problems after you replace them.

I replaced mine about 18 months ago with the $ 700 models and have to say, the decent steering only lasted about 6 months and they became as weak as the ones I replaced. I don't have any control problems, just the steering goes mushy really quickly and you're back to differential braking to steer. I would only replace if there was lack of control during take off roll or after the plane stopped flying upon landing. You will never get the steering that a C182 or even C172 can have with their larger rods.

Bill

Thanks Guys. As for the strut height that is set per specs. I took the old steering rods off to check them and there is no spring pressure at all, they just slide in and out like there isn't any spring in there. I have noticed that I have better steering to the left but when I pulled both rods off I couldn't tell any difference between the two.