REFLECTOR: nose gear retract.

[David Rene Dugas]

Great answer to a common problem.   If my rod end is more than 1.5 turns either way mine will not work properly. That much gained travel will be great. Another annual project. Thanks. 

René Dugas
Apple the REALLY smart phone. 

> On Nov 23, 2013, at 7:42 AM, John Dibble <aminetech at bluefrog.com> wrote:
> 
> Excellent solution!  I'm getting by for now, but will do that if I need to service my cylinder.
> 
> John
> 
>> On 11/22/2013 10:41 PM, Bob Jackson (Jax Tech) wrote:
>> John,
>>  
>> It is true that the standard nose gear cylinder has marginal travel -- often not enough to both fully raise (and close the NG doors) as well as fully lower (and overcenter lock) the nose gear leg. 
>>  
>> It would be easy to make a longer cylinder shaft -- and the Velocity factory routinely has done that -- however, since to the best of my knowledge there is no current manufacturer of new NG hydraulic cylinders, or at least one willing to make a cylinder barrel that is an additional ~1/2" longer, which would allow another 1/2" of travel (combined with a 1/2" longer shaft) and solve the problem.  Maybe that situation has changed in the last year...
>>  
>> Meanwhile, I discovered one solution to increasing travel that's easy if you don't mind disassembling the hydraulic cylinder.  When I took mine apart, I noticed that there was insufficient space inside the end fitting of the cylinder, and therefore the nut on the end of the shaft couldn't move aft far enough to allow the internal plunger aft face to contact the forward face of the aft fitting.
>>  
>> The plunger in the bottom of these first two pictures shows the shaft nut being unable to retract all the way inside the aft fitting and the limited resulting full aft travel of the shaft.
>>  
>> <mime-attachment.jpg>
>>  
>> <mime-attachment.jpg>
>>  
>> After switching from the normal nylon lock nut to the lower profile all-metal locknut, and after 'milling' out additional space in the 'pocket' of the aft fitting so the nut can move all the way inside the fitting and allow the plunger face to stop all the way against the forward face of the aft fitting, I gained ~3/16 to 1/4" more overall cylinder travel -- enough then to get both full up and full down nose gear travel.
>>  
>> Here's close up showing how I drilled out the cavity in the aft fitting to create the additional ~1/4" of cylinder travel.
>>  
>> <mime-attachment.jpg>
>>  
>> It's not hard to do with just a normal large drill bit, you don't need a mill -- just be sure to clean away all the aluminum shavings before you put it all back together!
>>  
>> Bob Jackson
>> Turbo-Cross Country Velocity XL/RG
>> 850 hrs and loving every one!
>> N2XF
> 
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