Landing Gear Rubber

[Mark Shayne]

I recently replaced the landing gear rubber on our 1940 LP65. The old ones were cracked and sagging and in dire need of replacement. I talked with Leroy Blum about this via the telephone, and he was very informative. I acquired the rubber stock from L.A. Rubber at a reasonable cost. On this website, I found a link to a photo of the original blueprint showing the proper dimensions (diameter, square hole size, and radius of corners) Near our airport, Arlington Municipal (AWO), I found an aeronautical fab shop with a water jet cnc machine, and they were happy to cut them out for me at a resonable charge. They came out perfect, and much more consistent than I could of managed with a hole saw and drill press.
They are presently installed and work/look great. Leroy suggested to install the new rubber and existing 40 thousands spacers with dry graphite so everything can work together without binding. Just an FYI for anyone interested.

Thanks Mark, NC27249

[Mark Shayne]

If you do a search for "Drew White" on this website, and look for his comment on Feb. 26, 2010, there's some dialog about this topic, and a link to a photo of the original drawing for the shock rubber and aluminum spacer disc. It's a little hard to read, but I was able to get the dimensions from that.
Good luck, Mark