A fix for the Cessna Nose Strut ‘leak down’

Are you tired of nose strut “leak down” on your Cessna? Does it seem that no matter how many times you reseal the nose strut, the intermittent leak down continues?

To counter that, McFarlane Aviation Products has released a new FAA-PMA seal kit.

“The new dynamic seal in McFarlane’s FAA-PMA seal kit is a double edge ‘X’” style seal that does not twist and leak,” explains Sarah Cauffield, marketing representative. “This seal solves the continuous leak and re-service problems that have plagued Cessna owners for the last 60 years. With McFarlane’s new Australian MCSK172-1F seal kit you can go years without worrying about servicing the nose strut.”

McFarlane’s new FAA-PMA Australian Nose Strut Seal Kit gets its name from Tony Brand with Horsham Aviation Services in Australia. Tony did the research and found that the “X” seal stops the twisting of the standard original O-ring that leads to intermittent leaking of the Cessna struts, according to Dave McFarlane, founder of McFarlane Aviation Products.

“The O-ring twisting is caused by a sticky film of oxidized MIL-5606 hydraulic oil on the chrome strut that intermittently grabs the O-ring and slightly rolls it as the strut goes up and down,” he explained. “The low system pressure of the Cessna strut design allows the seal roll action as there is very little holding pressure on the seal as compared to high pressure systems used on other aircraft. This rolling action puts a slight twist in the O-ring that causes unpredictable seal failure.”