My L-360 project is finally making some major progress. I actually got the landing gear installed and operating. Thought I did a  pretty good job too as I had only 2 minor leaks that were easy to fix. But then after cycling the gear maybe 10 times I started having problems - especially on the retract cycle. The hydraulic pump would start and stop and the gear would sort of stutter to the retracted position. A search of the archives revealed others had this problem too and the consensus seemed to be the spool valve installed backwards. I called Lancair and they actually disavowed any knowledge of a problem with these pumps or valves. I was advised they no longer work on the pumps and I should seek out a local hydraulic shop. So back to the archives. After spending a lot of time reading the tremendous amount of information on this subject (does this count as build time?) I found the fool proof way to pinpoint the culprit as the spool valve. Seems if there is a pressure of a few hundred PSI in the low pressure side of the system while retraction is taking place this is a dead give away. Also reversing the switch to down at about the 95% up point also helps to troubleshoot the problem. I had a delay of about 5 seconds before the pump would start up again and drive the gear down . Both of these gems are courtesy of Chris Zavatson. Thanks Chris. You were right on about the valve and despite my reluctance to tackle this on my own it turned out to be an easy 5 minute fix to turn it around. Also, Scott Krueger had many archived messages about identifying internal leaks and I learned a lot from you as well Scott. Thanks very much for all the effort you guys make to put what you learn in the public domain!

Long story short - my gear is working perfectly. Thanks again to all who have blazed a trail before me and who shared your findings with the list.

Best regards to all

Doug Waddingham
Denver, CO