Originally Posted by
WingNut60
With no knowledge at all to guide me, can someone close to this level of repair (replacement of pickle forks) please explain, in brief, how it would be done.
In my mind I see the entire fuselage being lifted off the wing, just to provide enough access.
Or, can you get the pickle forks in through the hold?
Splitting off the rear fuselage section seems, in my mind, to be totally unachievable in 3 weeks.
And, aren't there both front and rear pickle forks?
The fuselage does not really ' sit ' on top of the wingbox re production assembly. the pickle forks fore and aft re the fuselage are typical production breaks think of slicing the fuselage with a knife just in front of the front wing spar and just behind the rear wing spar. a close look at the fuselage sections in almost any simple production or 737 handout showing the different sections will show essentially where the production breaks are . So in overly simple ( description only ) terms, for rear pickle fork, undo the production break at rear spar section of wingbox, move it back a bit , undo picklefork from the fuselage section above the wing box and
along the rear spar attachment to the wingbox , replace picklefork, and then rebolt the whole thing together again. Lots of overtime to do it in two three weeks.
I've found a pic that comes close to showing the fuselage body differences between front and rear spars
look closely at the slight diff in green coating above rear spar fuselage ( panel join ) and ditto in front of wing front spar. Its subtle, expand pic and you can see. the pickle fork extends part way up the fuselage in those two areas
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...lays-catch-737