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Landing gear failed me for the first time in 25 plus years :(

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comancheflyer

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Just finishing up the annual on cubbie the comanche and it was time to exercise the landing gear and it was hesitant to go up a few times if at all. mmm the IA and I thought - probably the wire connectors at the squat switch on the left main (looked a little corroded). Removed the 3 connectors - cleaned them up - re-attached them (after dropping and loosing the itsy bitsy screw multiple times and then playing the sadistic game of hide and seek). Up again ... after a 1 second pause - it goes up. OK - Try again - nothing this time. Back underneath on the creeper. After some more investigation it ended up being a lazy squat switch itself that needed some exercising manually with a flat screw driver to shake the dust and muck off (plane has been sitting for some 9 months out of annual - go figure) Works great now!

Here is a question although ... around 10-12 years ago another IA decided to toss the little spring that USED to attach the the floor board inspection panel above the motor and a little metal arm on the gear motor itself during his re-assembly (that's why I like to disassemble and reassemble the plane myself). Very small and barely any tension. Never had any idea what it was for and has not effected the operation since it has been absent. Any idea what this was intended to do?
 

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