I am new to retracts. I have a 40 size T-34. I recently had a dead stick and I came in at a steep angle and hit the nose gear a little hard. On inspection, after resetting the gear in the down position, I thought all was OK. Next time out the gear would not stay down for a take off on our grass field. What have I done and can it be fixed without buying another gear? Any help would be appreciated.

Pictures would help.

If the servo is OK (gears not stripped or slipping), it sounds like the linkage from the retract (or the actuator rod) to the servo is bent (or slipped) and is not locking the retract.

You will need to do the following:
1. Make sure that where the linkage attaches to the actuator rod on the retract is OK and not bent or slipping.
2. Make sure the actuator rod is not bent (this is the rod the linkage connects to and operates the retract.
3. If the retract end is OK, readjust the linkage on the servo end. MAKE SURE THE RETRACT
LOCKS IN THE UP AND DOWN POSITION.

OBSERVE the operation of the retract to insure the actuator rod and/or linkage is not bending and preventing the retract from locking.


Mechanical retracts are pretty simple.

The only things that can happen is you bent the strut, you bent the actuator rod (this is the rod the linkage connects to on the retract) or where the linkage connects to the actuator is damaged.

Hope this helps.