REFLECTOR: nose gear retract.

[John Dibble]

On 11/21/2013 7:04 PM, Jim & Sharon Beck wrote:
> Thanks Michael, Rene, John & Tom.  I went up  to the hangar to see 
> what I could find as a cause for the gear problem, Thought I found an 
> easy fix as the jam nut was loose and it appeared the piston rod 
> needed tightening.  gained about 1/4 inch shortening of the ram by 
> tightening.  Did a retract and that didn't seem to make any 
> appreciable difference.  all the other attach points did not seem to 
> have any play in them.  when I put the gear down it went over center 
> but did not contact the microswitch to give me a green front gear 
> light. I lengthened the rod about 1/8 inch and the lights went green 
> again.  it appears that when retracted, the wheel is about 1 inch 
> below where it needs to be for the doors to close completely.

If I understand correctly, there is not enough travel to have the gear 
fully retracted and fully extended.  Adjusting the piston rod won't help 
since more travel in one direction will take away from the other 
direction.  I had this problem when I replaced my gear leg.  The new one 
was somehow different.  I ended up adjusting to get my wheel all the way 
up and then adjusted the microswitch for the new gear up position.  
After thinking about it, I think that maximum gear travel is achieved by 
positioning the pivot location as high and as far forward as possible.  
Height being limited by the canard and forward limited by the bulkhead.

John
> when flying I think that vibration and air pressure  is causing the 
> wheel to raise another inch alowing the door to completely close but 
> the wheel is still resting on the door at that point.  at this point I 
> am wondering if the gear leg bent a bit when my old azuza nose wheel 
> disintegrated when the front tire blew last spring.  is stops rather 
> quickly when skidding on the front fork and would  have a lot of 
> pressure to bend in the direction that would give me that problem.  
> all the welds and attach points look solid and no real visible 
> wrinkles on the gear leg. Will call factory in the morning to see if I 
> can get the bend angles on the gear.  also to find if it is normal to 
> be able to easily raise gear 2 inches after retraction by reaching in 
> from the top.
> Thanks for all your ideas.  only thing I didn't check was the pressure 
> but the cylinder seems to pull in in as far before, only other change 
> I can see would be to shorten the stop spacer, but that makes me 
> wonder what else changed to cause the problem.
> Jim 173 RG
>
>