about nose gear doors m20j

[sekomel]

hi everyone

hope you are all OK.

while my technician have been doing annual check of my mooney, I just realized my nose gear doors somehow are not fully closed or are not matched 100%. Please see video below:

as far as I know from the airplane logs, in 2003 the airplane has landed with gear-collapse and after correct maintenance action and exchanged-parts, it flew till now without any issue.

should I buy new pair of nose gear doors or is there any maintenance action that can be address this problem?

here are some links for selling the doors (very expensive though)

https://flyingcolorsairparts.com/gears-3/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mooney-M20-Pair-of-NEW-overlapping-nose-gear-doors-/114468054733

thank you all in advance,

sekomel

[RobertGary1]

Is there a lot of slop in the doors? Can you wiggle them on the ground? The linkage May be worn. 

[KB4]

Before buying new doors, might try adjusting the heim joint on pilot side a turn at a time. 
 

[RobertGary1]

37 minutes ago, KB4 said:

Before buying new doors, might try adjusting the heim joint on pilot side a turn at a time. 
 

But check them for wear first.  

[Vance Harral]

Just don't adjust them too far and/or fail to protect them with teflon tape.  We tightened up our door linkages many years ago because it seemed like they were mis-rigged (no slop in linkage, they just didn't come together as close as we wanted).  Looked good after adjustment.  A few months later we realized they were rubbing together in flight and the doors had developed some surface damage at the "lip" where they come together.  Just cosmetic, not really an airworthiness issue.  But your airplane looks like it has nice paint.

[PT20J]

I used this on all my gear doors. Sticks great and eliminates the abrasion. Available at Amazon.

TapeCase 200A Strip-N-Stick 1/16" Thick x 0.75" x 10yds (1 Roll)

 

 

[N201MKTurbo]

If the doors get sloppy it is usually the hinge that gets worn, not the rod ends. Test the hinges by moving the door fore and aft. If it moves more than 1/16 of an inch, you might want to consider replacing them.

[sekomel]

thank you all, we will start work on it next week and I ll update you.

thank you again.

[Yetti]

There are several things about nose gear doors.  First the washers on the through bolt.  There are special washers that fit the hemi joint.   Then there is  a stack of washers that needs to be correctly sequenced.  Then the arms need to be properly adjusted.

[KB4]

57 minutes ago, Yetti said:

There are several things about nose gear doors.  First the washers on the through bolt.  There are special washers that fit the hemi joint.   Then there is  a stack of washers that needs to be correctly sequenced.  Then the arms need to be properly adjusted.

Good point could be missing those bushings. 

[Guest]

There are normally 4 small bushings on each lower nose gear door link.

[RobertGary1]

17 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

If the doors get sloppy it is usually the hinge that gets worn, not the rod ends. Test the hinges by moving the door fore and aft. If it moves more than 1/16 of an inch, you might want to consider replacing them.

I figured that but once I replaced the rod ends everything stiffened up. But getting rid of slop is a bit of a never ending chase as there is always the next cause of slop. 
 

When I priced it the hing was very expensive. Not sure if anyone had tried getting a rod from the PMA section of Home Depot. 

[N201MKTurbo]

31 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

I figured that but once I replaced the rod ends everything stiffened up. But getting rid of slop is a bit of a never ending chase as there is always the next cause of slop. 
 

When I priced it the hing was very expensive. Not sure if anyone had tried getting a rod from the PMA section of Home Depot. 

Did you order the hinge from Mooney, or just use hinge stock from Spruce?

Mil spec hinge stock is about $2/ft.

Edited March 31, 2021 by N201MKTurbo

[sekomel]

hi again

hope everyone is doing great.

we fixed the issue with the gear doors, thanks again for all your help.

it is still not 100% matched as I wanted but definitely better than used to be, so thanks again for all your help. (also saved appx 2000 dollars)

according to my mechanics, the problem is washers with heim joint. they adjusted it again and here we are.

I attached the video below (to compare you can see the previous video above)

thanks again for all your help, really appreciated.

sekomel

 

 

[Guest]

Keep these technicians happy, they got your doors working beautifully.

Clarence

[sekomel]

I definitely will, they are great

 

[carusoam]

Great video Sekomel!

You must have a great mechanic.

 

Good to see things can be put back to proper condition all around the Mooney World!

Best regards,

-a-

[spectre6573]

On 5/4/2021 at 6:16 AM, sekomel said:

hi again

hope everyone is doing great.

we fixed the issue with the gear doors, thanks again for all your help.

it is still not 100% matched as I wanted but definitely better than used to be, so thanks again for all your help. (also saved appx 2000 dollars)

according to my mechanics, the problem is washers with heim joint. they adjusted it again and here we are.

I attached the video below (to compare you can see the previous video above)

thanks again for all your help, really appreciated.

 

sekomel

 

 

So this might be really late however I did this to myself and after looking at other friends Mooney's on the field determined what dumb dumb move I did during reinstall.

I had the same issue when I put my gear doors back on and they are not over lapping doors and were trying to. I see from your video that the hinge hardware is outside the doors, and in all reality, the hinge is supposed to be covered by the NLG doors when closed. This means that you can not see the screws holding the hinge on because the door closes over them. From your video, it seams your doors are overlapping a lot and this is what mine did with no rigging change until I properly installed them like I mentioned.

[Shiny moose]

36 minutes ago, spectre6573 said:

So this might be really late however I did this to myself and after looking at other friends Mooney's on the field determined what dumb dumb move I did during reinstall.

I had the same issue when I put my gear doors back on and they are not over lapping doors and were trying to. I see from your video that the hinge hardware is outside the doors, and in all reality, the hinge is supposed to be covered by the NLG doors when closed. This means that you can not see the screws holding the hinge on because the door closes over them. From your video, it seams your doors are overlapping a lot and this is what mine did with no rigging change until I properly installed them like I mentioned.

I have to agree 

[Guest]

20 hours ago, spectre6573 said:

So this might be really late however I did this to myself and after looking at other friends Mooney's on the field determined what dumb dumb move I did during reinstall.

I had the same issue when I put my gear doors back on and they are not over lapping doors and were trying to. I see from your video that the hinge hardware is outside the doors, and in all reality, the hinge is supposed to be covered by the NLG doors when closed. This means that you can not see the screws holding the hinge on because the door closes over them. From your video, it seams your doors are overlapping a lot and this is what mine did with no rigging change until I properly installed them like I mentioned.

I watched the video again, you’re correct.

Clarence

[carusoam]

See if @sekomel is cruising the neighborhood…

Interesting posts above…

Go MS!

Best regards,

-a-

[sekomel]

On 9/10/2021 at 3:30 AM, spectre6573 said:

So this might be really late however I did this to myself and after looking at other friends Mooney's on the field determined what dumb dumb move I did during reinstall.

I had the same issue when I put my gear doors back on and they are not over lapping doors and were trying to. I see from your video that the hinge hardware is outside the doors, and in all reality, the hinge is supposed to be covered by the NLG doors when closed. This means that you can not see the screws holding the hinge on because the door closes over them. From your video, it seams your doors are overlapping a lot and this is what mine did with no rigging change until I properly installed them like I mentioned.

thank you soo much @spectre6573 

I’ll advise my technicians see what we can do, but thanks so much again!