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Unread 02-16-03, 11:43 PM
kevin kevin is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2002
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Mark,

If all you want to do is add air to your nose strut, you can do that without jacking the aircraft, although it is a challenge. You can use a 90 degree bent adapter to get your air hose on the filler. Then have one or two friends push down on the tail. (Your choice, we do it with only one person, but some say that is not good for the airplane, and that one person should push down on each tail boom. Others say that the only correct procedure is to jack the airplane.) Anyway, after raising the nose gear in whatever way, add air to the strut, then let the nose down. Usually this will add too much air, and the strut will be overextended a bit. Release air from the filler until you have about 3 fingers of distance from bottom to top (i.e. the shiny part of the piston that is showing when weight is on the nose wheel). Raise the nose and lower it again o make sure the strut is not "sticking". Don't add too much air, if you do, the strut will lock the nosewheel straight ahead.

If you have to do this very often at all (my personal rule is more than once between annuals), you should jack the nosegear, fix the leak in the strut, and service it properly with fluid and air.

I learned this procedure from an ex Air Force O-2 mechanic, and do it only when supervised by an A&P. I don't know whether it is Cessna approved or not, so use it at your own risk. It works fine for us. Please see also the thread that Fred referred you to in his previous message in this thread for more comments from various folks on this subject.

Kevin
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