Lancair 200/300 series owners.  Do not slavishly follow the directions for the Legacy and upward strut servicing.  When I am next at the airport, I will look for the sheet that describes our nose gear strut servicing methods and turn it into a pdf (it was in a Lancair Newsletter).  Go to the Lancair web site and retrieve all documents that concern our nose struts in the support - service bulletin section http://www.lancair.com/Main/service_bulletin.html.  Get SB 9, 43, 57 and 67.  What the heck, get all those that pertain to your plane and equipment.

 

Here are two quick points:

 

1. Use 20 weight Motorcycle Fork Oil if you ever fly in the cold.  I tried heavier oil and in the cold, the force required to move the nose gear from side to side was as though the strut was filled with concrete.

 

2. Bleeding nitrogen from an overfilled strut (including the TK5s) is best done with an appropriately sized pin punch and a smallish hammer.  Hold the pin punch against the valve head and tap it lightly with the hammer.  Using this method only small pssts of N will bleed out.  Pushing some tool against the valve will insure that too much N will exit - humans are just not fast enough. Thus, the fill/bleed cycle will be repeated many times before giving up in frustration.