Piper main gear service

[Paul_Havelka]

We’d known since we bought 9068J that we’d need to rebuild the mains. She held nitrogen but seeped, very slowly, the 5606. This is our first plane and I’ve insisted on being as hands on as possible. Did owner assisted annual, installed new avionics with IA sign off and now the mains. I made sure to read the service manual and be plenty prepared. Disassembly went pretty easy and the fluid that came out was turd brown. The large o-ring seals were bother very flat spotted. Got the struts cleaned up and checked for burs and cycled to fill with new fluid. All in all it took me about 3 hours to do both sides and repack wheel bearings. Not bad for never having done it before.

Hard to tell in the picture but the stance is much better. We were almost a taildragger and now we look like a respectable tricycle

Before

After

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[Domenick]

Good job! Is that nose wheel low?

 

[Paul_Havelka]

No sir it isn’t. Probably an illusion from the 2x4 chocks I have there. Leave the one on the rear in place so I know where to stop when pushing her in for the night


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[Domenick]

No sir it isn’t. Probably an illusion from the 2x4 chocks I have there. Leave the one on the rear in place so I know where to stop when pushing her in for the night.

I do the same thing with a 2x4 chock in my hangar.
However, I meant to ask, "is the nose strut low?"

 

[Paul_Havelka]

No sir. Forget the measurement called out in the manual but it’s within a 1/4” or less


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[Timbeck2]

3 hours for both sides and repack the bearings? Did you replace ALL the seals? In other words, unless you have the mod to access the top of the strut, the strut has to be removed to replace the top seal.

 

[Paul_Havelka]

Don’t have the mod and there was no indication of any issues on the top sides. That was just disconnecting the torque links and dropping the chrome plated portion of the strut and replacing the bottom side seals.


Stoped by the hangar today to grab my sheepskin seat covers so that I can work on replacing the worn out elastic. On another note, I’m planning to start redoing bits and pieces of our interior including new seat foam and seat covers. I’ll be doing the sewing and plan on going with cloth for the seats. For the side panels I’m planning for simple and clean. Either aluminum backing(access to a bead roller would be great) or plastic similar to what airtex uses. If anyone has pics of interiors they’ve done themselves that’d be greatly appreciated

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