Hey Guys,
I have the latest yellow epoxy/carbon starfire. I ordered struts from Robart which I waited about 4 months for just to find that they were to long to work with my spring airs. After sendind them back I was told that they could not make them any shorter & I would have to carve out my finished wheel wells. Does anyone have any info on where to get sruts ?

Heliboy,

I thought all robart struts could be cut down.

Have you checked the dimension drawings on http://www.robart.com/pages/robo.html ?

Heliboy7

What strut number did you order? Most Struts can be cut down a certain amount. Drop me a line with the info and I'll see what i can do for you.

Ed
Robarts Dealer

Please post in this thread as there are others watching. :-)
I have asked many times what main struts and nose strut to order for the Starfire and no body has answered the question.

Robart struts can be cut shorter. In the instructions they tell you how much, although I have often found that the amount they allow is not enough for most sport jets.
If you take the pin out of the scissor link and remove the spring you will notice that there is a plug in the upper part of the strut that the top of the spring rests on. That plug can be removed fairly easily and it will allow you to cut the struts even shorter than the instructions allow.
The plug is made of nylon and you can simply drill it out with 1/4" drill bit. When you drill it it the bit will usually go most of the way through the nylon plug and then "catch" as it starts to exit the bottom. If you are holding it in your hand the little flanges that the scissor link attach to will rip your hand to shreds (Experience, aint it a *****). To avoid this I usually wrap a towel around the strut and the flanges (sometimes I will clamp it in a vise as well, but you run the risk of bending the strut). Once the bit "catches" the remaining part of the nylon plug will start turning and will come out on the end of the drill bit as you pull it out of the strut.
Now that that thing is out of the way you can cut the upper part of the strut down.
I don't remember what the minimum they can be cut to is, and I am at work so I can't measure one until I get home, but you can easily figure it out by putting it all back together and, with the strut fully extended, insert a dowel into the top of the strut until it hits the top of the spring. Mark the dowel even with the top of the strut and then measure from that mark to the end of the dowel, then you just need to subtract the thickness of the steel plug (included with all robart struts) from this measurement and that is the minimum amount that can be cut off of the top.
When you are done the top of the spring will rest against the steel insert.
Hope this wasn't too confusing.

Kevin Whitlow

The robart website has dimension drawings for most every strut they sell. This drawing specifies how much can be cut off.

I'm using robart 650 struts for the mains that I cut down to fit. I think I cut about 1/2" off of them to make them work. During testing they seemed to work just fine. For the nose I'm using a heavly modified BVM strut, but the Yellow A-4 strut will work just fine.

If I can be of any service just shoot me some mail.

Mike
[email protected]

I mailed the struts back to robart Attn: Eric who's the guy I've been dealing with through out this mess. I printed out a pic which I took showing the problem very clearly ( unfortunately I used high quality on my camera so I cant post it here just yet ). His words to me was "the engineer looked at these struts & determined they could not be cut down any further" so basically I waited 4 months for nothing. They are supposed to credit my card but im stuck with a nearly completed starfire with no struts.Thats why its on the bag.
Jermaine

If you are using the Spring_Air landing gear system (the type that you can insert the whole struts into), you can cut it to any length you want. Just do what Kevin recommended. You can also cut the spring length to accommodate your setup.

Hi Jermaine:

Sounds like you have been trapped in the Robart Black Hole. I use Bob Walker's stuff almost exclusively. He comes with his warbird stuff to our fly-ins, but at times, his customer service drives me up the wall. Kevin and Ben's postings are right on. You can, and I have, cut struts to whatever length you want. Only consideration is keeping the spring tension right. What I do is measure the tension simply by pressing the strut down on a scale, and recording tension. Then after cutting the strut, cut off just enough spring to match the tension. I am not familiar with Robart Struts for the Starfire. I have JMP MK10's on mine. The only thing to consider regarding how short you can make them, is to be sure the tire clears the air cylinder when it retracts.
Shortening the nose gear is a bit more of a problem, since you have to remove and reposition the swivel tube and the pull-pull arms. With all your car work on the Lambo, see if you can hook up with someone to do light spot welding and machining.

Tom

How do you know which Spring Airs will take the strut? The opening of the hole?

Look at http://www.retracts for Spring Air Specifications & prices. You can use wire adapters that come with the Robart Struts or buy Strut ready retracts.

Spring Air sells direct at 15% off list.

correction - http://www.retracts.com

IS it possible to drill the landing gear to take the strut?

Most retract pivot blocks are not big enough to be drilled for struts. Spring Air 400 series accept 1/2" struts and 500 series accept 3/8" struts

OKay, another silly question. I have a set of Spring Airs, how do I determine the model number. I bought them with the kit, and the retracts do not have a model number on them. Any that I can see.

Thanks

Hi,

If the Robostruts you have are the standard 3/8" straight ones, they can definitely be cut down to fit the Starfire. You will not need to modify the plug or the spring at all. If you'd like, you can send them to me and I can make the appropriate change, or you can give me a call at home and I'll walk you through it.

Thanks

I would be more than happy to let you cut them down to the right specs, but you have not gotten back to me about the cost of buying them through you. :bananahea
Send me the qoute for the struts and the other stuff and you can cut them before they are shipped.

David

Hey Shaun I agree with David....you can make that 2 sets if you can. Or can someone say 100% which ones to order that will work for spring airs & BVM wheels & brakes & I will take it from there. I called Eric from robart again & read him some responses from this post & he stuck by my struts absolutely not being able to be cut down !....
he also said with 650's my wheel would sit outside of the well. He can pretty much tell me anything until im armed with my own experience of doing it once.
So if any of you guys know for sure which will definately work with my setup or if you can order them Shaun let me know.
I may sound a bit like a moran, but please guys be patient with me until I do just 1
Jermaine
Thankyou all, my jet brothers......

I just realized I didnt put down my spring air model #, also someone wrote about a spring air you can put the entire strut in.
I thought that was a typo but now realize there must be different models. Well I bought mine from Charlse at Yellow with my kit & they accept 3/16 wire
Jermaine

David,

Believe it or not, I'm working on it!! :-) Not all the ducks are in a row, but they should be by tomorrow.

Shaun