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Another issue that the ES guys worked on was play at the bearing blocks that hold the two posts at the top of the strut. The spherical bearings are just pressed into the bearing blocks and can shift under any significant side loads. One of our ES guys discovered a bearing had shifted and made inserts from aluminum tubing to hold the bearings fully seated into the bearing blocks. I found both of the bearings had slipped during my disassembly after my shimmy, one side caused the strut to impact against the bearing block. I'm not sure if the shifted bearings caused the shimmy or the shimmy caused the shifted bearings. I've attached photos of my bearing block inserts.
In the photo titled "Bearing Block Comparison, Bearing Slippage" the upper set of bearing blocks show the bearings fully seated into the bearing blocks. The lower set are from my aircraft after the shimmy incident. You can see how much the bearings have moved.
Since our ES struts don't have to swing, the bearings don't do anything. So I'm not sure the inserts are a good idea for the IV guys, since it could potentially cause binding during gear movement. My guess is the inserts wouldn't be a problem, but I would swing the gear several cycles to make sure.
Mike Easley
Colorado Springs
ES
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