Bill M:
I have a question regarding control yoke repair, restoration costs, or new yokes. I have found a new pair of yokes on eBay for $100.00 and have to believe that restoration of a pair would cost at least this much.
Editor:
I advise against purchase of the new bare yokes frequently seen on eBay. The problem is that they are partial-manufacture cores, with a bored hole in the back attach point. They do not have the metal stub-out molded in, that is required in order to rivet the yoke to your control shaft. Different planes have different versions of this stub-out. Some have a straight, full-diameter stub. Some have a stub that is necked down. All the Bonanzas and Barons have a threaded stub, intended to take a bearing and chain gear. If you go after a new or used yoke, you have to know whether your plane has the large versus the necked-down stub (it won’t have the threaded stub). If you do buy the eBay yokes, you’ll either have to obtain some other cracked salvage yokes, or destroy your present yokes, to obtain some stubs that you can epoxy (aircraft structural adhesive) into the new yokes.
There is a guy who advertises yoke repair in the ABS magazine. I had tried to correspond with him to arrange for a refurbishment deal for our Aero Center planes, but haven’t heard back from him. He would probably be pretty expensive, if he is accustomed to charging Bonanza prices. You can download some yoke repair info from BAC, if your yokes just have cracks. If they have large sections of plastic peeling away from the aluminum (uncommon, and usually on the back side), they are beyond repair.