noisy nose strut

spikecarter

After landing at home from a lengthy cross country excursion, Th'e nose gear was stuck in the fully extended position and no amount of hanging the prop would move it. Turns out the retaining ring on the top of the inner tube was bent and broke, I believe because the rubber bumper was so old and deformed that the strut was allowed to over extend and the piston came out of the lower (inner) tube. We installed new seals, new retaining ring, new rubber bumper and put the whole thing back together according to the manual.

However, when the strut is cycled up and down, there is a faint scraping sound that can be felt as if something is dragging metal against metal. Is this normal? The Piper nose strut certainly isn't as sophisticated as say, a motocross fork or even a mountain bike shock, so I wouldn't expect it to be quite as smooth, but maybe they just operate noisily.

Tom_Jax

No, the strut should ride on the gaskets and seals, and not have metal to metal contact. It sounds as if something was not put back together properly, or possibly damage on the metal components from the initial issue?

griff390

https://piperowner.org/talk/discussion/157196/noisy-nose-strut

Spike;

I'm going to leave the expert analysis to some of the others, but I'll say this: anytime you hear metal on metal scraping/grinding, it's an indication that something is wrong. Your plane is telling you out loud.

You mentioned that the retaining ring broke, so it's possible that a small piece of the ring is lodged somewhere it shouldn't be. Could be one of the bushings in the gear is bad, etc. Have it inspected, you should not hear metal on metal.