I finally got around to removing the landing gear from N444DD, and I am still recovering from all the contortions I had to put my chubby mature body into to remove the nuts on the bottom two bolts from inside the cockpit. From the picture you can see that the landing incident did a number on the gear. Both legs are bent back a little more than 3 inches and bent out almost 3 inches. So far the only cracks I have found is the normal weld crack on the bottom weld of the mounting plate to the outside gear leg tube. The gear measure just about 57 inches long where the drawings call for 53.8 inches so I guess these are the long gear. I haven't measured how far out of alignment the axles or axle pads are but I know they are toed out considerably.
Those of you who have had experience with bent gear and the repair of same I would appreciate any shared knowledge and experiences you might have that would help send me down the right path to fix these gear. Here are my questions so far; with the amount these are bent are they repairable by cold bending without re-heat treating? since these are bent out and back and the axle pads are toed out do I try to bend them along the axis which they are bent or do I bend them to first get them straight in the in and out direction and then bend them to get them straight in the front to back direction? with the axle pads being toed out it would seem that these gear legs are twisted a bit is that a normal issue with these bent gear and is that something that will clear up once I get the legs straight?
I haven't found any real damage to the firewall (or anywhere else other than the gear) from this incident any thoughts on where I should be looking? The propeller was damaged in the incident and it and the engine were long gone by the time I acquired N444DD. The dynafocal engine mount does look undamaged.
Sorry for all the questions, your help is greatly appreciated.
Dave
