Consider this:
1. When the nose gear leg is first installed, the bearings blocks are
positioned between the engine mount plates and clamped so the gear is plumb and
swings properly into the wheel well.
2. Two holes are then drilled thru each bearing block to
ultimately secure them to the engine mount and pass thru the spacing tube
(carefully cut to length to not make the bearing blocks so tight as to
bind).
3. The bearing blocks should have been marked as to left/right,
inside/outside and top/bottom. Since each block is drilled in place, they
are unique to each airplane and to their location/position on that
airplane. The two holes may be spaced equally apart but if the blocks are
rotated, transposed or swapped, it is almost a guarantee that the leg will not
be plumb or retract correctly. There is only one way to be correct but at
least five ways to be wrong - it isn't 50/50.
So, before the nose gear leg is removed for service make sure the
blocks are marked so they can be replaced exactly back from whence they came and
in the same orientation.
If your leg was taken off, it would have been possible that the blocks
did not go back to the proper place.
This is the kind of problem that can occur when the builder is no
longer servicing the airplane.
That is very good information, of which could easily be missed while
trouble shooting nose gear problems.
Gary Edwards
LNC2 N21SN
Medford, Oregon