B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Other / Unknown; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
Upon arrival; the meeting technician noticed the nose gear steering cover was loose and seemed to be drooping. He checked the cover and found it to be loose. When attempting to tighten it he discovered that forward attach bracket screws had been deliberately cutoff and a sealant fabricated screw head was used in its place. At the time the loose steering cover was noticed the bolts had failed.The event was started by a routine check for a loose steering cover. This is rather common and is simply a hardware tightening process to repair. In this case it turned out worse.The person who installed the steering metering valve missed the step that asked the technician to install the forward attach bracket hardware through the upper steering plate. Apparently after the steering metering valve was installed the tech discovered his/her error. Rather than remove the metering valve to correct the error the tech opted to cut the screw heads off and use sealant to hold the forward bracket. Note the screw must be installed prior to the steering metering valve installation because there is insufficient clearance with the valve installed.The aircraft was removed from service. The steering cover was removed and the proper hardware installed. The aircraft was then return to service.I suspect that schedule pressure played a role in this event. The tech realizing his error likely feared calling the inspector to inspect the metering valve reinstallation. The time required to remove and reinstall the valve also would likely need to be explained.
A B737 mechanic found that a nose gear steering cover had been improperly installed using sealant instead of screws as a shortcut.