Nose gear door piano hinge

[Shadrach]

Greetings all,

My nose gear doors have developed a bit of play and I'm hoping to replace the hinges at annual. I have a part number for the nose gear hinge as 320006-7. However, I'm pretty sure it's a standard aircraft grade piano hinge. I am unfamiliar with sizing. If any of you have done this before, please sing out!

I am assuming the correct option is one of these:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/mepages/pianohinge.php?clickkey=15883

If the pricing by column means what I think it means, these are going to be pretty pricey.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Marauder]

I'm curious as well. One of mine has a bit more slop in it.

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[smwash02]

I did mine last year and saved the old ones ('66C)

 

I can't get to the hangar before Saturday, but if no one has answered you by then I'll get you some dimensions.

 

Hinges won't be more than 40-50 bucks, but the mechanics time to drill all those rivets will cost you a bit -- unless you do it yourself.

[RobertGary1]

They must have changed it. Mine is 550032-007 and $100 from Lake Aero for a 76 F. Can be done by anyone with basic drill and squeeze skills(with A&P sign off).

-Robert

[Shadrach]

I've a squeezer and an IA will be involved, I just want to have all parts in hand before tear down.

[RangerJim]

One can shim out quite a bit of play with safety wire and extend the life of the existing hinges.  Most techs are aware of this technique and it will save you some hard earned flying dollars.  Chad Avila at Lasar squared mine away in 2011and they remain serviceable today.

[ShermAv8tor]

Keep us posted…I will be doing mine here shortly…65C…I'm doing my annual now and just have not got to that part of it yet…I'll be looking for Smwash's reply with dimensions…

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[RobertGary1]

  On 8/20/2015 at 4:21 PM, RangerJim said:

One can shim out quite a bit of play with safety wire and extend the life of the existing hinges. Most techs are aware of this technique and it will save you some hard earned flying dollars. Chad Avila at Lasar squared mine away in 2011and they remain serviceable today.

Can you post a pic? I'm trying to imagine how you get the safety wire into the hinge.

-Robert

[carusoam]

If things are designed ideally...

The hinge and the wire that connects them are two different materials.

If the wire were originally selected to be slightly softer than the hinge material. The wire would collect most of the wear.

Replacing the wire would be a whole lot easier than replacing one of the rivets.

From the ASpruce site. There are two choices of materials for the hinge, SS and aluminum.

Getting to the point...

Pull the hinge wire first, see how worn it is. Replace with a new wire of proper material and dimensions. See how well the hinge fits.

Sometimes the Mooney parts really are engineered better than others...

I am still just a PP, definitely not a mechanic...

Best regards,

-a-

[N601RX]

Going from memory there are 2 types of these hinges.  One is rolled into shape from flat sheet and the other is extruded.  The rolled one can be straightened out if pulled on enough, but I doubt that the nose gear would pull it apart.  One of the kit companies sent out the wrong kind several years ago and had to replace them.

[N201MKTurbo]

I have found that hinges don't wear as much between the wire and the hinge, but the sides of the individual hinge sections. This allows the doors to move fore and aft which affects how far they close. It can be adjusted out.

[RobertGary1]

On mine it looks like the ends of the wire are squeezed. I was hoping they would be easy to slide out like the oil door. But I won't lose sleep or over $100 and an hour of my time. I agree that it looks like the wear is more than the wire. But the $30x8 for 10 cents worth of spacers is worth legal work around.

[Marauder]

Interesting. It sounds like the hinges are riveted on your planes. Mine has a bunch of small screws.

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[RobertGary1]

  On 8/20/2015 at 9:10 PM, Marauder said:

Interesting. It sounds like the hinges are riveted on your planes. Mine has a bunch of small screws.

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Screwed to the plane. Riveted to the door.

[Guest]

  On 8/20/2015 at 2:07 PM, Shadrach said:

Greetings all,

Mose nose gear doors have developed a bit of play and I'm hoping to replace the hinges at annual. I have a part number for the nose gear hinge as 320006-7. However, I'm pretty sure it's a standard aircraft grade piano hinge. I'm am unfamiliar with sizing. If any of you have done this before, please sing out!

I am assuming the correct option is one of these:https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/mepages/pianohinge.php?clickkey=15883

If the pricing by column means what I think it means, these are going to be pretty pricey.

Thanks in advance!!!

Hi Ross,

I recall the hinge being MS20257-XX. This is the rolled eye type of hinge rather than the extruded version. If you are able to remove one of the doors you should find the dash number, failing that measure the opened width of the hinge and compare to the chart at Spruce.

Normally riveted to the door and secured to the airframe with #4 PK screws and Tinnerman nuts.

Clarence

[Shadrach]

Thanks to all for the advice! I will try alternate means to remove the play. The problem is fore and aft movement of the hinge on the pin

Clarence,

Thanks so much for the very specific information!

[RobertGary1]

If anyone gets the non-Mooney P/N post it here. I'll try to get out to my plane next week and measure mine if not.

[ShermAv8tor]

So just guessing here on the safety wire shim method......since mine is the same with ALOT of fore/aft movement, left side only, right side door tight.....I visualize taking maybe .020 or possibly .032 safety wire and trying to wrap it around the pin between two hinge points thus taking up the slack of fore/aft movement.....it would need to be done in several places i'm assuming so it will stand up against time, but think it will too begin to wear......hard to decribe, but I will look at it this weekend and post some shots if it seems to work.....Have to go up on jacks soon to check the gear.....

[Shadrach]

I elected to order new from Wicks Aircraft Supply.

MS20257-P4 $3.67 per foot. It comes in 6' lengths and I ordered 12'. They will cut to down, but the price is over $4.00 per foot if you get less than 6 ft. They also had 4" wide leading edge tape for $3.06 a foot.

[ShermAv8tor]

  On 8/22/2015 at 7:21 PM, Shadrach said:

It comes in 6' lengths and I ordered 12'. They will cut to down, but the price is over $4.00 per foot if you get less than 6 ft.

so you ordered 12 feet? Why so much? Wicks cheaper than spruce I guess? I looked at mine over the wknd and the pin diameter is much smaller than the hinge I.D. and thats causing the slop in mine.

[Guest]

  On 8/22/2015 at 4:47 PM, ShermAv8tor said:

So just guessing here on the safety wire shim method......since mine is the same with ALOT of fore/aft movement, left side only, right side door tight.....I visualize taking maybe .020 or possibly .032 safety wire and trying to wrap it around the pin between two hinge points thus taking up the slack of fore/aft movement.....it would need to be done in several places i'm assuming so it will stand up against time, but think it will too begin to wear......hard to decribe, but I will look at it this weekend and post some shots if it seems to work.....Have to go up on jacks soon to check the gear.....

Every eyelet on the hinge has to be worn in order for it to have fore and aft play. A few pieces of safety wire will only prolong the inevitable replacement for a while.

Clarence

[RobertGary1]

  On 8/25/2015 at 10:29 PM, M20Doc said:

Every eyelet on the hinge has to be worn in order for it to have fore and aft play. A few pieces of safety wire will only prolong the inevitable replacement for a while.

Clarence

 

Yes, that's where I'm at on one my my doors. So I'll replace the hinge. Oddly on the other door the hinge is in great shape but the spacers on the Heims are worn down. I'm going to fabricate some break line (1/4" likely) and get it approved as an owner produced part.

 

-Robert

[Shadrach]

Hold off on ordering Robert; I'll likely have enough left over for you.

[ShermAv8tor]

  On 8/25/2015 at 10:29 PM, M20Doc said:

Every eyelet on the hinge has to be worn in order for it to have fore and aft play. A few pieces of safety wire will only prolong the inevitable replacement for a while.

Clarence

Fully agree with you Doc! Per LASAR the mooney hinge is 106.65 each....or use MS20257 style hinge material from spruce for much less $$

[RobertGary1]

So like most owners I have various slop in the doors. My right side door slop was mostly the result of the spacers have mashed down over the years. So this evening I took some 1/4" steel brake line and cut it into small sections to make a pretty good owner produced spacer. It made a big difference on that side. The left side is the hinge and I've not done that. If you've never done it before, talk to your A&P about owner produced parts.

 

-Robert