Rick,
Regarding the free fall failure, I extracted the text below from a previous post back in July.  You may have excess friction or binding in your system somewhere.  To check the health of my gas strut, I free fall the gear above 100kts.  If I don't get a green on the nose gear right away, I will very slowly bleed off airspeed until I see the strut pop into place - usually around 100 kts.  In an actual emergency extension, I would slow down to 80 and let it come down with more authority, but this technique shows me exactly how much margin I have in the gas strut.  from:  Re: [LML] Re: nose gear bent-? pilot or mechanic error,Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005
<<......There are a number of places where friction or binding can occur and prevent the standard gas strut from doing its job. The two links and the nose gear must swing in the same plane during the entire retraction cycle or else binding will occur. Excessive compression on the nose gear bearings is another popular source of friction causing free fall difficulty.
Things to check: With the over center link disconnected from the nose strut, it should swing freely, yet have no side play in the bearings. The length of the spacer holding the two bearing plates apart is absolutely critical. If it is too short the compression on the bearings will produce friction. If it is too long you will have side play in the strut. Once the bearings are ruled out as a source of friction, the alignment of the over center linkage to the strut needs to be checked. A simple way of doing this is to disconnect both the gas strut and hydraulic cylinder, so that the linkage can be moved freely. With the nose strut in any position from fully extended through fully retracted, the end of the over center linkage should slide in and out of the from between the tabs on the nose strut without applying any pressure to either tab. If at any time, the links apply pressure to one tab or the other, then the axes of rotation for the nose gear and the over center links are not parallel causing the parts to swing through different planes.>>

keep us posted,

Chris Zavatson
N91CZ 360 std
www.N91CZ.com