Mechanic Monday.Tip of the week. Bath time.

Mechanic Monday.Tip of the week. Bath time.

Have a story for you this week.
SAS airlines crashed 3 aircraft in row a few years ago. What happened is when they put the landing gear down the hydraulic actuator rod end stripped out of the actuator rod and the landing gear collapsed when it landed. The reason it stripped out was because of corrosion. What was odd is that no other airline with the same type of aircraft had that problem and the aircraft were relatively new by airline standards. So what caused the corrosion? It turned out that SAS was regularly pressure washing their landing gear to cut down on the salt water corrosion caused by flying to airports that were near the ocean. What the frequent pressure washing did was remove all the corrosion preventative compound in the hydraulic actuator's rod end and forced water into that area causing it to fail.
This weeks tip is be careful with pressure washers as they can easily remove grease in your swing arm, linkage, shock attachment bearings and steering head. All the while driving water into those areas to cause corrosion. One is often better served by letting the dirt of your bike soak up a light application of water then after a few minutes rinse it off with low pressure.

Stay greasy my friends.