Donald, Do you have the early model welded steel landing gear? If so the problem you speak of is rather routine with them. Don't know why you are having a problem removing the top portion though. Typically, one removes the top machine screw and the plunger knocks loose. The piston freezing in the cylinder is a problem with the older type and could be with the newer type if it is not serviced. Lee Browning
Fitting in with the MLG postings of late, I decidewd to jack mine up and put in the spacers to raise my tail today. As I was taking thinga apart, I was surprised to see there were already a set of spacers there. Strange, my tail is pretty low. I decided to measure my donut stack, three and 1/2 inches, although the rubbers look as good as new. I jacked it up to measure again no load - still three and a half! What the heck is going on here. I have a pair of bellville spring equipped struts, measured them, and the stack is about four and a quarter inches! I decide to take things apart to see what is going on, drop the bottom bolt, swing the strut back to pull it off - and it won't move! Now I understand why the rubbers are compressed - the strut is froze solid in a compressed state! Take the other side off, same thing. Easy, just pull the top bolt out - whoops, I think you must have to pull the wings to do that AND have some special wrenches, not what I wanted. I found I could put a drift down thru between the wing and center section, and pound on the top of the strut to try to beat the bottom part off. No luck, gave up for the day and came home to get a bigger hammer - a LOT BIGGER hammer. I may have to heat the outside of the strut to release it, probably burn up the rubbers, and I don't even know for sure WHERE the sticking is! Has anybody else had this problem? I could sure use an easy solution right now. No wonder I had such a devil of a time with smooth landings, darned thing had NO spring action whatever! ____________________________________________________________ Get Free Email with Video Mail & Video Chat! http://www.juno.com/freeemail?refcd=JUTAGOUT1FREM0210
