Cessna 172

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landon18

Filing Flight Plan
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Landon Scarbrough
Seeing about my 172 Strut has a little fluid on the side but not collapsed so seeing if y’all recommend if it needs serviced hasn’t been hard or bad landings.
 
landon18 said:
Seeing about my 172 Strut has a little fluid on the side but not collapsed so seeing if y’all recommend if it needs serviced hasn’t been hard or bad landings.
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It needs some new seals. Some people will put some Granville's Strut Seal in them, but that only goes so far. It swells the old seals, but they're worn out and will fail someday. They age, and cold weather is hard on them.
 
Ok is that a long process
 
They do need to be filled with air every so often.

But eventually will need the seals replaced.
 
Depends on whether you take the whole strut out. It's usually the seals at the bottom end that are leaking. There are two of them, one that the chrome barrel slides in, and the other around the bushing. On rare occasions that top end of the strut will need a new seal on the big slug, and at the bottom of the chrome barrel, there is another slug held in by the bolt that retains the wheel fork that also has a seal on it. Then there's a small seal on the metering rod that's attached to that bottom slug. Finally, there's an aluminum washer under the air inlet valve, and that valve itself has a core that suffers from age. If all the stuff is good, adding air, or preferably nitrogen, is very rare.
 
I find if a Strut goes flat with no fluid leakage the culprit is the o- ring at the

top. Fluid leakage is bottom o-rings. Not necessarily true of retractable gear

though.

btw. I have had good results with Granville. If I get 6 years and 500 hrs

( and counting) out of of one servicing. A Rockwell 114 shock is longer in calendar

time. Temperature variations like the first freeze seem to have less effect.
 
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