Nose gear preload with electric gear?

[Gary0747]

In reading the maintenance manual for a friends Ovation, I see no mention of using the Mooney nose gear over center torque tool and measurement. Only bunge spring compression measurements are mentioned for nose gear preload. Either we are overlooking something or he will not need to borrow my nose gear Mooney tool come annual time?  Does anybody know if he should see the 100 to 130 inch pound torque that we see on my manual gear after properly checking his bunge compression versus specs? 

[carusoam]

The Long Body got beefed up versions of the previous Mooney legs...

Not sure how different they are in all respects...

We can point @M20Doc this direction...  Long Body gear question regarding over center torque measuring.... ^^^^

Best regards,

-a-

[Andy95W]

The nose gear fighting tool is not needed for the electric gear Mooneys with bungee springs.  You just measure the before and after length to ensure they're compressed far enough.

Out of curiosity, I've checked them with the tool after ensuring the measurements were correct.  It ended up being about 100-130 in/lbs., but it's really hard to be accurate because the springs keep compressing farther and throwing off the reading.

[Yetti]

The better question is do they go out of spec by just flying them?  

[N201MKTurbo]

I’ve always said that rigging the preload so the springs just don’t completely compress while swinging through overcenter is the optimal setting. The values in the book are approximations for those who don’t understand the concept. Doing this will give the most preload without causing the links to bind going through overcenter. If you do this the torque readings will be within spec.

The torque readings are just a quick sanity check to make sure nothing is broken.

The only time the preload should change is if something is bent or broken. In most cases the preloads will be off because someone tried to fix something.