REFLECTOR: Door strut review

[Al Gietzen]

My door pins are super tight - they were perfect and easy to move when I
first fit them years ago. The handle requires a lot of force now to get the
pins all the way in. Will this improve with time, or should I make some
adjustments to the pins or the receiver tubes? Grease helps a bit, but not
enough. 

Dennis;

 

My experience was that when I first fit things up the doors latched very
easily.  Then I hung the engine, and the slight distortion of the fuselage
changed the door fit, and the latching required more force.  Then I added
the door seals, and it became still more difficult.  The door seal effect
faded out after some months, and latch forces were not an issue.  I found
that when the plane sat for long times in the hot hangar the latching became
more difficult. With the plane up on jacks under the wing struts, the doors
latch more easily - so yours will probably work easily when you are in the
air:-).  OK, not funny.

 

If it really takes unreasonable force you might try latching the door, and
then applying heat with your heat gun at the area of the latch tubes,
probably best on the ones in the door (carefully).  Perhaps you can
determine first of certain pins are particularly the issue.

 

Al

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