at the end of last year I had to cycle the lg several times to get them both to come down. turned out that it was the right wing retract mount (plastic) was no longer glued in and the mount would hang by the two screws mounting it to the top of the wing and the retract hitting the wheel well while I flew. once I knew what the problem was I took those two screws out and the plastic part came right out. the next question was what to glue?
the purpose for the long strap forward of the retract pocket was an attempt to allow the plastic to move without exceeding its plastic limit. so I recognized that gluing that in would not be good, then the question became where to put the glue? mine had damage on the aft part of the mount, it had cracked right at the edges of the aft ear. I recognize this as a high stress area once the retract gets slammed into the socket on every landing. I was able to push it back into place, I did not glue it together because it happened because the foam under it was giving and putting a higher stress on the area not supported by the lg ear and I recognized I needed to support it from the foam side so I let that glue rejoin it.
I put 15 minute epoxy in the aft lg well, on the aft lg ledge and on the wing surface and pushed the mount in place with tape over the screw holes where I epoxied. then put the two screws in to mount it to the front anchor to the top of the wing. once the glue in my mixing cup started to get hard I put the retract in and screwed it in (mistake!). once dry everything worked great.
next trip to the flying field I got 2 flights then the retract would not come down. after bellying it in I took the gear out and manually moved the follower so I could still fly w/o retracts. in doing so the small told me the motor had burned up. when removing the aft lg mounting screws they were epoxied in so a little soldering iron on the screws and they came out. the new retract went right in w/o a problem and has ~10 flights on it w/o a problem.
since then I have been debating buying a wing set, just because I cant expect this to be available in the future. I hope this answers your question, if not let me know if I can help
Joe
the purpose for the long strap forward of the retract pocket was an attempt to allow the plastic to move without exceeding its plastic limit. so I recognized that gluing that in would not be good, then the question became where to put the glue? mine had damage on the aft part of the mount, it had cracked right at the edges of the aft ear. I recognize this as a high stress area once the retract gets slammed into the socket on every landing. I was able to push it back into place, I did not glue it together because it happened because the foam under it was giving and putting a higher stress on the area not supported by the lg ear and I recognized I needed to support it from the foam side so I let that glue rejoin it.
I put 15 minute epoxy in the aft lg well, on the aft lg ledge and on the wing surface and pushed the mount in place with tape over the screw holes where I epoxied. then put the two screws in to mount it to the front anchor to the top of the wing. once the glue in my mixing cup started to get hard I put the retract in and screwed it in (mistake!). once dry everything worked great.
next trip to the flying field I got 2 flights then the retract would not come down. after bellying it in I took the gear out and manually moved the follower so I could still fly w/o retracts. in doing so the small told me the motor had burned up. when removing the aft lg mounting screws they were epoxied in so a little soldering iron on the screws and they came out. the new retract went right in w/o a problem and has ~10 flights on it w/o a problem.
since then I have been debating buying a wing set, just because I cant expect this to be available in the future. I hope this answers your question, if not let me know if I can help
Joe
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