No back spring in landing gear actuators

[sleepingsquirrel]

On 3/13/2016 at 7:41 PM, jetdriven said:

So, is this contained in the airworthiness limitations section or not?  Cirrus has one, and the Items therein are not optional.  But it's a FAR 23 aircraft.  

There seems to be a debate on whether SB's are now mandatory.  I have no idea why  

 

These attachments could help .

HQ-16-14.pdf

new-tennessee aircraft services - (2015) legal interpretation.pdf

Edited July 4, 2016 by sleepingsquirrel

[PeytonM]

Is there any update to the 1000 hr number?

[M20S Driver]

I don't think so.  I have not seen anything on the change..

I replaced mine last year..

[Sams]

Any news on the supply/price of this spring? Any vendors other than Mooney directly?

For the European Mooney drivers: Do you have an old/broken one spare? See here:

 

[StevenL757]

Yes.  I can confirm the springs are $802.  Just ordered one yesterday in preparation for my June annual, and my IA picked it up from the factory.  They have a few left from a recent batch of several made, else, there is roughly a 2 to 3-month wait for a batch to be made.

[G-SLOT]

Does anyone have a rough sense of the current cost (parts and labour) to carry out this SB? Is availability of the parts an issue these days?

Edited November 22, 2019 by G-SLOT

[INA201]

On 11/22/2019 at 11:07 AM, G-SLOT said:

Does anyone have a rough sense of the current cost (parts and labour) to carry out this SB? Is availability of the parts an issue these days?

$2606.57 at an MSC in July of 2019. Personally, I wouldn't have just any mechanic work on the gear.

[ArtVandelay]

Top Gun originally (2013) was waiting for Mooney to increase the time to 2000 hours.  They are now recommending to replace it at 1000 hours.   
Perhaps the chattering is the best near failure indicator for a seasoned pilot but not everyone knows or understands it.

Personally I think hours are a horrible way to decide to replace the BS, should be landing cycles.
There is several actuators Mooney used over the years, does this apply to all, or just 1? TL;DR


Tom

[M20S Driver]

1 hour ago, ArtVandelay said:

Personally I think hours are a horrible way to decide to replace the BS, should be landing cycles.
There is several actuators Mooney used over the years, does this apply to all, or just 1? TL;DR


Tom

Agreed.  My understanding is that this is only on Eaton actuators. 

 I wonder if this is done differently on the newer Mooney planes?

[INA201]

6 minutes ago, M20S Driver said:

Agreed.  My understanding is that this is only on Eaton actuators. 

 I wonder if things are different on the newer Mooney planes?

In my case I went by the elapsing of 41 years being appropriate for putting a new spring in.  I didn’t want to do it but I’ve worked my way through most of the plane and this was one of the last boxes to check off. 

[larrynimmo]

for what it is worth...I sent mine to TopGun in California....the spring kit is about $1,000....they quoted me 3 hours for about $100...then you have shipping, and in my case the sheathing on the manual extention cable had failed, so that was an extra $250 for the OEM cable, plus the labor to install.

My A/P told me he could have installed it himself...

[Kenfen]

As of 8/26/2021, my question is:

1.  Are new factory Mooney's still getting Landing Gear Actuators that need this Spring replaced every 1000 hours?

2.  If not, what are the new improved Actuators and do they fit in the previous models?

3.  If they don't fit, can they be retrofitted.

[Danb]

On 11/25/2019 at 5:19 PM, larrynimmo said:

for what it is worth...I sent mine to TopGun in California....the spring kit is about $1,000....they quoted me 3 hours for about $100...then you have shipping, and in my case the sheathing on the manual extention cable had failed, so that was an extra $250 for the OEM cable, plus the labor to install.

My A/P told me he could have installed it himself...

The replaced kit 

[Derek]

Anyone gotten a spring lately? I'm in for annual now and the tach is about to roll over the 1000h mark so was hoping to get the back spring done, but the shop can't find a replacement. Will do it whenever one is obtained.

[A64Pilot]

59 minutes ago, Derek said:

Anyone gotten a spring lately? I'm in for annual now and the tach is about to roll over the 1000h mark so was hoping to get the back spring done, but the shop can't find a replacement. Will do it whenever one is obtained.

I tired calling LASAR, got a recording that said for parts use the chat on the web page, no one was available to chat, got a message that said leave a message with email etc and someone would contact me, that was several days ago.

[ilovecornfields]

3 minutes ago, A64Pilot said:

I tired calling LASAR, got a recording that said for parts use the chat on the web page, no one was available to chat, got a message that said leave a message with email etc and someone would contact me, that was several days ago.

I just finished my annual and the spring is due for replacement next year. I asked my MSC if it was too early to order the spring and they said “It’s not too early. Order it now.”

[A64Pilot]

Just now, ilovecornfields said:

I just finished my annual and the spring is due for replacement next year. I asked my MSC if it was too early to order the spring and they said “It’s not too early. Order it now.”

Who do you use? I want to order one myself, and if I thought I’d put more than 1,000 hours on the aircraft I’d likely order two 

[toto]

Are there any shops that do enough of these to actually stock some springs?  Maxwell?

It might be worth traveling to a shop if they have one sitting there.

[StevenL757]

14 minutes ago, A64Pilot said:

I tired calling LASAR, got a recording that said for parts use the chat on the web page, no one was available to chat, got a message that said leave a message with email etc and someone would contact me, that was several days ago.

If you haven’t already done so, you need to hit Option 1 and speak with Dan.  LASAR sells more Mooney parts than damn near anyone in the world, and they support those parts, so the fact that you’re getting nowhere is unacceptable.  Keep after them…they will reply and get you taken care of.

Additionally, my IA has had four of the spring kits on order for over 3 months.  A month ago, Mooney told him that they would be available “first week in November”.  A week ago, that timeframe is now open-ended, and he doesn’t have the confidence that the kits will be ready anytime soon.  We’ll keep following up every few days to attempt to get better traction.  To my knowledge (after some checking), very few - if any - MSCs have a kit on the shelf, and are likely in the same predicament as my IA.

Steve

[carusoam]

It probably suffers from being too expensive to have sitting on a shelf…

-a-

[PT20J]

LASAR does sell a lot of parts. But they don't stock as much as they used to. And, since Corrine left, it seems that Dan is frequently swamped. If you really need to talk to him, keep trying.

However, any MSC can order parts from the factory and many of the larger ones stock some common parts.

Skip

[ilovecornfields]

3 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

Who do you use? I want to order one myself, and if I thought I’d put more than 1,000 hours on the aircraft I’d likely order two 

I ordered it from LASAR. But it sounds like I wasn’t the only one. Hopefully they’ll arrive eventually. 

[bmcconnaha]

Sure would be nice if we could order parts directly from the manufacturer.  I hate bugging Dan at lasar from small stuff.  He seems pretty busy. Last time I didn't get a call back. I know stuff can slip between the cracks.  

[LANCECASPER]

13 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

I tired calling LASAR, got a recording that said for parts use the chat on the web page, no one was available to chat, got a message that said leave a message with email etc and someone would contact me, that was several days ago.

They don't answer he phone like they used to, but I always get an e-mail back from Dan in a day or two. 

parts-mods@lasar.com

[alexz]

On 11/3/2021 at 7:45 PM, toto said:

Are there any shops that do enough of these to actually stock some springs?  Maxwell?

It might be worth traveling to a shop if they have one sitting there.

Last month I spend 4 hours on the phone and called almost all shops. No one had this spring available