A Maintenance Oriented Podcast For Airplane Owners, Pilots, and Mechanics

Tag: gearmotor

246 – Parts Changer or Real Mechanic? Cessna-210 Landing Gear Motor Story

This story begins with a squawk from the owner. It went something like this:

“When I fly my airplane, on the first landing gear retraction, the gear begins to move and then the “gear pump” circuit breaker pops. After I reset the circuit breaker, the gear retracts and extends normally with no further problems the rest of the trip.”

Weird…

What could be wrong?

It was my job to figure out what was going on.

I put the airplane on jacks and selected “gear up.”

Sure enough, the gear began to move and after a short time, it stopped mid-travel and the “gear pump” circuit breaker popped.

For once, the problem happened just like the airplane owner had reported.

I checked each gear leg for any binding, and everything appeared nice and free to move.

After evaluating and thinking through the situation, I decided it was a reasonable possibility there was an internal problem in the electric motor on the landing gear power pack.

I removed the motor and quickly discovered it was full of debris. Take a look at the brush housing:

Amazingly, a can of contact cleaner and some compressed air produced a quick transformation… and the brushes actually had lots of good material remaining:

The commutator segments were in similar rough shape when I first disassembled the motor:

But some Scotch-Brite, contact cleaner, and compressed air freshened up this area as well:

The armature housing also had a large amount of debris to be removed:

I didn’t think to take a photo after cleaning, but it turned out very nice as well.

Before disassembling the motor, I thought we might end up replacing it with an overhauled one.

But after seeing how well the motor was made, how simple it was, what good condition the brushes and other parts were in, and how easily it cleaned up, I realized it would likely be good to go for a long time, and I decided to reinstall it.

And here’s the motor after reassembly, along with one of my grubby hands 🙂

Here’s the landing gear power pack area that’s accessible near the copilot’s feet after removing the little plastic cover on the side of the console: (these photos are before I reinstalled the motor.)

Before reinstalling the motor, I put some black electrical tape around the end seams to keep the housing from coming apart (there are 2 long 1/4 inch bolts that go through the length of the motor and attach it into the drive area on the power pack.)

After everything was back together, I ran the landing gear, and it performed flawlessly!

Now, the real test will be to see what happens the next time the owner flies his airplane. Until then, I’m hopeful for a good report.

Sometimes, we do need to just replace parts on airplanes… but sometimes, we can be a real mechanic, and dig in and repair an existing component!

In this case, I’m figuring I saved this owner a chunk of change on this repair.

One final item: when the airplane was in the shop, it became really obvious the right brake caliper was leaking… check it out:

A couple new o-rings and some brake linings took care of this squawk as well.

Now it’s time to go fly!


The post, “246 – Parts Changer or Real Mechanic? Cessna-210 Landing Gear Motor Story” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com

155 – My Retractable Landing Gear is Not Moving!

This is what Josh discovered recently in his Beechcraft Debonair while getting some training in his airplane with an instructor as part of the Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Program (BPPP.) The gear motor was the culprit.

Josh’s story is the main feature in today’s episode, but first I want to thank PilotWorkshops for sponsoring the podcast.

The more I learn about PilotWorkshops, the more impressed I am. The team led by Mark Robidoux is producing all kinds of valuable resources to help us as pilots go beyond being legal and certified, to becoming proficient and safe.

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So I encourage you to do two things:

ONE: Go to PilotWorkshops.com and sign up for the “Tip of the Week.” It’s a short, 2 minute or less, valuable lesson for pilots, both in print and audio form… there’s a question, followed by an expert answer, along with a fun quiz at the end about “what you would do” in that scenario.

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TWO: Grab a copy of the new engine book… “Airplane Engines: A Pilot-Friendly Manual.” Check it out here: https://pilotworkshop.com/products/airplane-engines/

I had the privilege of helping to edit the engine book and provide photos, and I can say with confidence it’s a GREAT resource for pilots!


Now back to Josh and his gear motor.

Sometimes the gear would retract and extend, and sometimes not.

Listen to the story in today’s episode to find out how things turned out with Josh’s instructor that day, as well as why they ended up carefully towing the airplane back to the hangar by hand, and how the aircraft finally ended up on jacks in the shop at Classic Aviation LLC at KSHD, where the landing gear motor could be removed for repair.

The gear motor is on its way to Kevin O’Halloran for repair. I was totally impressed with the procedure he uses to repair these 12 volt “Lamb” gear motors. (Those are the only ones he works on.)

We’re also changing all 3 nose gear rod ends, hardware, down spring, and shear pin at this time (as recommended by ABS.)

Here’s the existing nose gear down spring, shear pin, idler arm rod end and hardware…a portion of the parts we’ll be replacing (looks like they’ve been there for a LONG TIME.)

Josh will be good to go for a long time as far as the landing gear goes.

I found a sketchy-looking entry about the gear motor in the airframe log from 1996. The best I can tell, here’s what it says:

“Removed landing gear motor, cut armature, new brushes, new bearings, replaced overhauled motor, retract tested.”

Sorry, but for me, sloppy maintenance entries makes me wonder if the work was also sloppy.

It’s always best to type maintenance record entries.

And one last thing that’s not a big deal, but it indicates the maintenance manual procedure was not quite finished, is the shimmy dampener. The cotter pin should be slightly spread apart to allow inserting a small measuring rod or wire to determine when the fluid is low.


If you’d like me to travel to your airport for some very specific maintenance oriented training with you, then send me an email: dean@airplaneownermaintenance.com

Or, to set up a virtual call:

Schedule a FaceTime call with me in 2 simple steps

  1. Go to my calendar and pick a time spot that’s good for you.

2. Go to my PayPal link and make a $100 payment.

On the scheduled day, I’ll call you and we can discuss and examine your airplane concerns. (Many prefer FaceTime for this.)


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