ORIGINAL: badazzgti03
the doors open smooth. that's not the problem. It' when it retracts it wont retract all the way like 3/4 of the way and the wheel is still poking out the door and the servo has it all the way retracted but then you gotta push the wheel up to get it to retract all the way. and then when you go to retract it down it wont retract causing the horn to bend like in the picture.
I have the same issues with the small Robart retract unit I use in my Hellcat which looks very much like what is in the Staggerwing. I can't get my tailwheel to completely retract either simply because there is too much slop in the unit. In the fully retracted position it is still possible to move the wheel up and down probably 1/2" at least. Works great upside down but a soon as you turn it right side up the tailwheel sags down! No amount of fiddling and adjusting of the linkage has solved this issue for me. It is simply a "feature" of this rather inexpensive tail wheel unit. Also, when retracted it is possible to get the down lock arms collapsed so far that it becomes impossible for the servo to overcome them when the time comes to extend the gear. This is simply due to the geometry and no servo with any amount of power will make any difference. Instead you just end up bending or breaking something else as appears has happened in your case. You either have to add a mechanical stop to prevent the arms from collapsing so far or you have to adjust the end-point on the servo so that it stops short of the fully retracted position. That's been my experience anyway, hope it is of some use.