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Message
Dick,
I had my GM-3 wiggle
about 1/16" aft towards "falling off" after about 25 flight hours. My area
washers were installed. It was the GM-3 that caused my failure. The
symptom that brought this to my attention was the lack of a down and locked
light on the offending gear. Yikes! The GM-3 had
shifted aft which allowed the roll pin to miss the down switch. This
occurred on my plane because the left and right GM-3's were reversed.
Reversing these items precluded the shoulder from holding the GM-3 in
place. the mono ball stayed attached while the GM-3 slid aft. Thus
the area washer on my plane had minimal relevance towards holding
the GM-3 in place.
The headache with
that mono ball bearing insertion was that it is not obvious which side of the
GM-3 is shouldered. I would suggest that measuring front and back will
allow positive identification of the shouldered side. Then the area washer
can be placed on the appropriate side to hold the mono ball together should it
ever start to shift out of the GM-3. Mine is set up with the area washer
aft and the shoulder forward. This set up has the shoulder preventing aft
movement of the GM-3 and the area washer preventing the mono ball from moving
aft out of the GM-3.
Indeed, this failure
could cause a huge catastrophy if not properly assembled. If any LNC2
drivers are not absolutely positive that these parts are properly installed I
would recommend inspection in short order.
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