Hydrolic Power Pack
 

Any of you folks owning 1973 or later models out there ever considered having their power packs overhauled? My annual is coming up in a week or so and I am wondering if I should look into this. Mine is working fine however reading my log books, it was "overhauled" 20 years ago at 1300 hours by a previous owner and now the plane is at 2500 hours and I am wondering if maybe it is time again. I tried doing searches of previous posts and though I found many discussions about the power pack, I did not find any dealing with overhauling the unit at any specific time or date. Any input from anyone?

Thanks Ed

had gear problems, it was recommended that the hyd. pack be overhauled, so i did. it did not
make any difference. i'd spend the money on replacing all the hyd. hoses, maybe wheel well
wiring and the limit switches. after the hyd. pack overhaul had a gear failure a few months later. a pin hole in the middle of the nose gear hyd. line. no fluid gear stays in transit. if the
hyd pack takes a dump, you can hand pump it.

Thanks for the reply Rick. I have had all hydrolic lines replaced. It was the first thing my shop suggested when I purchased the plane in 2002. Wiring and limit switches I believe are original. My gear (knock on wood) has been perfect since I have owned the plane so I hate to mess with it. I just try to stay ahead of things before they break and on this particular issue I am "on the fence." Thanks for the reply and sorry to hear of your gear failure. Hopefully everything is ok now.

Ed

The only reason why I carry insurance is because of the landing gear. So I say, let the insurance company take the risk on your landing gear. If it isn't broken then don't fix it...let the insurance company lose sleep over it.

Power Pack
 

I have had many problems with gear. Mostly switch problems and once because seal on from gear was leaking and replaced. The mechanic tighened the yoke to tight and the gear would not extend fully, therefore squat switch would not transfer and gear would not come up. I had the motor on power pack replaced, because it failed to run. I also replaced all hoses and fluid because of age.
Dale Campbell

On my 1978 FT337GP, a couple of years ago we diagnosed a slight leak from around one solenoid and slow action. It was a pretty straightforward job to remove the whole unit, clean, replace the o-rings and the motor brushes as I recall. Lots of fiddly bits.

Mind you I didn't actually do it myself so it was really easy.

The reality is that it didn't make that much difference as everything was and continues to work ok.

We have had a few micro-switches replaced and/or require slight adjustment, but generally everything works well.

As I have mentioned before when you replace hoses, make sure the down locks stay out of the way until the gear leg moves them and they then pressurise. The hoses can force them out of position in which case they can pressurise and the gear leg may not be able to move them out of the way.

Regards - Dave

Thanks for the input guys. I also had a conversation with my IA and he did not seem too concerned about overhauling the power pack. He did mention that at annual they do clean the solenoids, and inspect the wires and switches. He did require me too replace all hoses when I purchased the plane as I mentioned. I have had very good luck with my gear so far so hopefully that will continue. Now if I can remember how to spell "hydraulic" I'll be in good shape. Thanks again!

Ed

Don't worry about speeling. Just communic8.