Any one have gear well cleaning tips?

[Matthew Sawhill]

I'm new to the world of complex aircraft ownership, and I'm a little intimidated by the prospect of cleaning the gear wells. I have access to anything I might need (cleaners, solvents, toothbrushes, power washers, a billion hours of experience cleaning vintage airplanes), but don't want to commit any "no-no's" that will cause problems down the road.

How should I tackle the process? What should I NOT do?

Thanks for the help.

Matthew

[N3322G]

Hi Matthew,

So good to see someone wanting to really keep the airplane clean.

My advice would be to keep most solvents away from the operating parts of brakes, conduits, wiring, micro-swtiches and pivot points. I'm sure you already know that with your vintage experience. If the parts are new to you, under the tech tab on the Home Page, the parts manual is there so you can see the diagrams for parts identification - took me years to learn them - not that I was working hard at it. Also, in the POH there is limited cleaning advice.

What I do is use three buckets: one with aviation simple green, one with a car wash solution and third with frequently changed rinse water. Oh, and I dress in old somewhat water-proof jacket and shower cap and simply plan on cleaning the creeper after I'm done. Unless the plane is on jacks or you have perfectly-sized arms, your abdominal muscles will not need any additional gym time. My technique is to de-grease with the simple green and before it dries, wash, then rinse then dry. so the areas a fairly small. If it has been awhile, especially behind twin engines, I use paper towels and spray aviation simple green, wash, rinse and dry.

I also suggest going to OSH and learning from others on what they do with their Comanches. There are some really attentive owners. For me after 44 years, so far so good. I do a general top wash 4-12 items a year as I don't like to pre-flight a dirty plane, underneath 1-2 times a year and detail behind engines 1-2 times a year

Hope this helps.