One of the most highly respected canard experts and a professional maintainer, Marc Zeitlin, has been on about nose lift failures for some time as he has seen quite a number. It seems the bolts no matter how they are fixed, and I used loctite and safety wire, undo over time and failure here can mean a lot of nose damage. I have such a nice nose paint job this is unacceptable!  Marc has released a retrofit fix kit for a reasonable price. I had to do it as a preventative measure.

Here are the parts and instructions.

Of course, getting the nose lift out on my install is no trivial matter.

I eventually got the cover off. The secret is to unplug all the electrics first that go into the box on the side of the cover. Then there is no need to remove the box from the cover after all. That’s an hour or so I will never get back.

Some people don’t have a cover. If not its just the two side bolts after you remove the bolt on the gear leg.

It is out at last.

This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of years! Just some blue loctite on the nuts and little bolts that hold the limit switches in place. If these come loose the gear just might go through the floor when it retracts or maybe the motor will keep running when it extends fully and burn out? Whatever the case, despite the lock nuts I have added the extra 243 makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

The clamp is partly installed here. The shear fitting allows the nut to rotate with the gear leg and eliminate the unscrewing problem. Genius.

Now its all, back together as if nothing had happened, …except another day is over.