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Shocks absorber
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:53 am
by JUBERT
Hello everyone
I have the following little problem
My Maule leans on the left side despite the replacement of the shock
absorber springs (new PN 4161B)
The left wing is about 4 inches lower than the right wing
I obviously checked all the attachments and parts of the train without
finding any deformation or anomalies .....
Have you ever encountered this problem ????
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:26 pm
by FARMAULE
I had this issue on my M4 and new ext gear fixed it. The old gear had some elongated holes. Also a little off at the fuselage is a lot off at the wing tip. With that being said don’t measure from the wingtip itself. I found measuring from the tie down was mor precise and took out the probability of the fiberglass tips not being exact. Some easy things to check before that would be....
1.Tire pressure equal side to side
2. Fuel tanks equal
Jeremy will probably chime In with better details but you can place a level on the forward fuselage tubing that supports the front seats and/or door frame to door frame and check there. Goodluck
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:34 pm
by FARMAULE
Search “Drooping Wing” for more guidance
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:37 am
by JUBERT
FARMAULE wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:26 pm
I had this issue on my M4 and new ext gear fixed it. The old gear had some elongated holes. Also a little off at the fuselage is a lot off at the wing tip. With that being said don’t measure from the wingtip itself. I found measuring from the tie down was mor precise and took out the probability of the fiberglass tips not being exact. Some easy things to check before that would be....
1.Tire pressure equal side to side
2. Fuel tanks equal
Jeremy will probably chime In with better details but you can place a level on the forward fuselage tubing that supports the front seats and/or door frame to door frame and check there. Goodluck
I did it all
Empty external reservoirs
Filling up interns
tire pressure ...
And I repaired the oval holes of the shock absorber ....
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:39 am
by norcal64d
Did you add that collar around the end of the strut to use for new material to drill holes in? Have you flown it since the repair? My plane was level after installing new oleo spring assemblies but the gear definitely was sitting differently with a serious amount of positive camber until I flew it and did some landings and it kind of went back to neutral.
If you still have the seats out, try to precisely measure the gap of exposed oleo to see if one spring is sagging more than the other. My other thought would be if you drilled new holes and added that collar, I wonder if a dimension slightly changed causing one strut to be longer than the other.
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:25 am
by JUBERT
norcal64d wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:39 am
Did you add that collar around the end of the strut to use for new material to drill holes in? Have you flown it since the repair? My plane was level after installing new oleo spring assemblies but the gear definitely was sitting differently with a serious amount of positive camber until I flew it and did some landings and it kind of went back to neutral.
If you still have the seats out, try to precisely measure the gap of exposed oleo to see if one spring is sagging more than the other. My other thought would be if you drilled new holes and added that collar, I wonder if a dimension slightly changed causing one strut to be longer than the other.
The holes being very oval, I unsoldered the 4 original screw supports and I welded this new ring
The longest is to polish the shaft of the shock absorber well so as not to damage the O-ring during reassembly.
The left spring although it is new (like the right) is slightly more flexible and the gap between the two oleos is 2 to 3 mm which causes a difference of 3 to 4 cm at the end of the wing under the ring mooring ....
I don't think I'm the only one to see this (little) problem
The solution is certainly to put shims under the spring
I asked Maule who seems to be ignoring this problem ......
They just told me to put more fuel in the higher wing !!!!!! Funny !!!!
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:30 pm
by norcal64d
Interesting. Since its all back together it might be worth it to just do some landings and see if they settle in a little bit.
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:15 pm
by Mog
Check that your gear legs are identical. I have found at least two stock Maule gear legs exist and a miss match could cause issue.
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:23 pm
by Andy Young
My plane had a similar lean when I bought it. I had the struts apart a few times, measuring everything, trying to figure it out. I finally just swapped the left spring to the right side and vice-versa. It has sat level ever since.
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:38 am
by JUBERT
Andy Young wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:23 pm
My plane had a similar lean when I bought it. I had the struts apart a few times, measuring everything, trying to figure it out. I finally just swapped the left spring to the right side and vice-versa. It has sat level ever since.
I will do that at the next annual but I will do some landing before......
Re: Shocks absorber
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:39 am
by JUBERT
Andy Young wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:23 pm
My plane had a similar lean when I bought it. I had the struts apart a few times, measuring everything, trying to figure it out. I finally just swapped the left spring to the right side and vice-versa. It has sat level ever since.
Yes I will do some landing and i will chek again.......