Inner Gear Door Longevity

[Jeff_S]

Hello all,

 

I'm having a dickens of a time managing the health of the leading edge of my inner gear doors (M20J). Summer of 2011 my right-side unit was cracking severely on the leading edge, so I ordered up a refurb replacement from LASAR, had it painted up and installed, life was good.

 

Middle of last year I noticed the left side was starting to crack as well, but we tried stop-drilling a hole which worked for a little while. Then the crack started spreading again, but this time it was toward to aft part of the unit which is reinforced so I just watched it for awhile. Finally it started spreading again toward the front part and I have ordered up a new refurb from LASAR and am in the process of getting it painted for installation.

 

Lo and behold, on inspection the other day I noticed that the right-side, recent refurb from LASAR is now cracking vertically right along the seam where the leading edge is sandwiched and riveted between two outer skins. I had thought their refurb approach would be bullet-proof, but apparently not. Or perhaps there is something I need to consider and tell my A/P when he installs these things so that whatever vibration or friction is causing my problem will no longer occur.

 

I'm open to all thoughts and suggestions.  Thanks.

 

Jeff

[N201MKTurbo]

You should check the rigging of the gear. both legs should hang pretty close to the same height in the up position. The gear doors need to be rigged with just the right amount of pressure on the bottom of the wing while closed. The gear motor is very powerful and can put tremendous stress on the gear doors if mis-rigged.

[KSMooniac]

Yes, check the door rigging in the up position. You might need to space the door away from the wheel with a washer or two to keep from overstaying the door. Sent from my HTC Rezound using Tapatalk

[Jeff_S]

Thanks All. I got some advise from Paul as LASAR as well so I think I'm armed with enough information to get these rigged right all around. This may be another time where I'll be well served by going up to Joey Cole's in Rome to let the Mooney expert get it right.