Spring air retracts bending
 

I have the spring air retracts on my Royal B-25. They work great but I am having a problem with the main gear. They bend very easy. After only a few flights, they bend enough that they retract but will not extend properly. What is happening is that the gear is pressed up against the air cylinder in the retracted position and the sliding pin is in the up locked position. When the air is released, the sliding pin gets jammed in the up lock position and the internal spring cannot push the sliding pin forward releasing the gear.

Is there any way of hardening the piano wire landing gear? Maybe there is another way to solve this problem?

Sean

Spring air retracts bending
 

Are you using the hardened gear legs meant for retracts or making your own from 'piano wire'?

Several sets of retracts that I have (Spring Air and some older Kraft Multicons) both have gear legs that seem a lot harder than plain piano wire, although piano wire could possibly be tempered to make it harder. Maybe someone with experience with hardening wire could jump in.

Spring air retracts bending
 

I am using the spring air gear. I would like to find a way to harden them.

Sean

Hot stuff...
 

In order to temper any wire you must heat it to red-hot and quench in oil. To remove temper, as I do for any hardened push rod wire I'm going to "Z- bend", heat to read-hot and let air-cool.
Spring Air makes different diameter gear wire. All you have to do is to drill out the hole in the pivot block for a larger gear leg.
I have two sets of Spring Air gear, one 202 and a 202 HD.
The only difference is the diameter of the gear wire.