ACO43
New member
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- Huntington Beach, CA
I took the landing gear off my M116A3 to lube it up. It worked, but it didn’t work very well, and I figured it probably just needed some fresh lubrication. So, I took it apart. When I got the top off I found that the lube around the gear had pretty much dried into partially congealed chunks.
I removed most of those by just shaking it over a trash can then removing most of what was left with large tweezers. So, after I removed the gears I pulled the two halves apart and find this…
…Well…shoot! That doesn’t look good. I think you can see the problem by the pictures but not being familiar with the technical names of the parts I’ll call it the shaped “nut” that the main screw threads through is obviously broken in several pieces. Also, one of the two pins that hold it in place is bent too. There’s just enough there to hold it together if I reassembled it but I’m sure it wouldn’t last long and being that part appears to be cast metal I doubt it could be welded. I’m sure I could replace the bent pin with something from the local hardware store. The local ACE Hardware has an excellent nut, bolt, screw etc. section that has a surprising variety of oddball parts, but the cast “nut” I’m not sure how I could go about trying to duplicate that. And since the main screw is pretty much welded into place on it from each end that would be another challenge. Anybody got that part, (the cast iron “nut” and main screw), for a landing gear that they like to sell me?
Or, as an alternative, anybody got any good ideas on how to fabricate a replacement that would work?
I removed most of those by just shaking it over a trash can then removing most of what was left with large tweezers. So, after I removed the gears I pulled the two halves apart and find this…
…Well…shoot! That doesn’t look good. I think you can see the problem by the pictures but not being familiar with the technical names of the parts I’ll call it the shaped “nut” that the main screw threads through is obviously broken in several pieces. Also, one of the two pins that hold it in place is bent too. There’s just enough there to hold it together if I reassembled it but I’m sure it wouldn’t last long and being that part appears to be cast metal I doubt it could be welded. I’m sure I could replace the bent pin with something from the local hardware store. The local ACE Hardware has an excellent nut, bolt, screw etc. section that has a surprising variety of oddball parts, but the cast “nut” I’m not sure how I could go about trying to duplicate that. And since the main screw is pretty much welded into place on it from each end that would be another challenge. Anybody got that part, (the cast iron “nut” and main screw), for a landing gear that they like to sell me?
Or, as an alternative, anybody got any good ideas on how to fabricate a replacement that would work?
