Good evening fellow back country pilots. I found a decent deal on a forged HD 210 nose fork and 6” Cleveland. The strut tube itself has a lot of rock nicks and pits. It’s done. I’ve never disassembled a Cessna fork. How hard are the get off the strut tube ? Heat gun on the fork and a rubber dead blow on the top of the fork about the cross through bolt? Press? Can the fork be swapped on the plane ? I’m curious what my AP and I will be up against swapping the fork. Thanks.

Yes, the fork can be swapped out. You need an oven to heat the fork and inner strut to 300 F for about 20 minutes. Then some dry ice on the inner strut and a press to get the inner strut out of the fork.

It's a bitch. I'll find someone to do it for me if I ever have to do it again.

rfinkle wrote:Yes, the fork can be swapped out. You need an oven to heat the fork and inner strut to 300 F for about 20 minutes. Then some dry ice on the inner strut and a press to get the inner strut out of the fork.

It's a bitch. I'll find someone to do it for me if I ever have to do it again.

That sounds like experience speaking !!!

I tried the heat and cold method without a press with no success. The press is a requirement in my experience. It took several pumps after making solid contact to pop them free with a bang.

Disregard, I re read your post

How high do the nicks go? Your going to want to do the 2-3" of rubber hose mod anyway.

I used a rivet gun for about 30 seconds a few times with a planishing head and a buck bar and it came right off with a little LN2 on the tube. No press. It backed off about a mm the first time, then a quarter inch with more LN2 soak, and then all the way.

But...I imagine the press works well too.