Last month I wrote that I had landing gear retraction problems in an XS abo
ut 7 years old and 400 hrs flight time. Several of you made useful suggest
ions--mostly to tighten or replace the bungee. Thank you for your respones.
On repair, this is what I found.
I placed the aircraft up on jacks and removed the main wheel to make room t
o work on the bungee. Before I started on the bungee I tried retraction to
see if I could do it without the 25 lbs of wheel and brake. I could not--
even with someone else pushing on the swing arm. Closer examination reveal
ed a wet looking hydraulic damper on the right side. But even more interes
ting was just a little bit of the polyurethane shock block squeezed out on
the right side--and it was evident that it was rubbing on the swing arm as
it neared full retraction. I removed and replaced both dampers and the sho
ck block. The wet looking damper had little resistance. I also replaced t
he EUR 026 bolt that goes through the top of the dampers because it was sli
ghtly bent also on the right side. Before I replaced the shock block/dampe
r assembly I tightened the bungees which wasn't too difficult working alone
with adequate space and a little wedge to hold the bungee as I worked alon
g the loops. (Thanks Kim Prout!)
Also while I was there I removed the Matco parking brake because it had not
been holding. At first I was just going to change to the spare channel on
the Matco but the replacement of O-rings is easy and cheap (Matcomfg.com).
Everything reassembled, I was ready for the big test. Surprise. The outri
ggers did not fully retract. I removed the speed fairings and found that b
oth push rods (OR5) were very badly bent and jamming on the outboard W21 si
de plates. Furthermore, the slots in the push rods were badly gouged in on
e spot as if the full length of the slot was not being used. I replaced t
he push rods, lublicated appropriately and tried retraction once more. Wor
ked better than ever--just as advertised.
One advantage of having operational problems is that after overcoming them,
one can be more astute in pre-flight inspections.
Bob Lindsay A 077
Gillespie Field, KSEE
San Diego CA
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