Use the Search menu to do a search on "Strut" over the last year and you will get a lot of information. 

A service & parts manual will help educate you.  Your a+p friend has probably done this before. Has he ever done this on a C-152 or is that why you ask?


my 2 cents

Tony,

Do you know if servicing the nose strut is considered acceptable for owner performed maintenance?  It seems to me to be within the relm of greasing wheel bearings, repairing flats, servicing brake pads...

To me this means that after doing it once with an A&P (i.e. getting checkout), I would feel OK to do it myself.

"Servicing"...adding "air" or fluid.

If you need a seal/gasket/etc changed...that's not a "do it yourself" thing.
Unless, of course, your a licensed mechanic.
You might only need one O ring to fix it.
But, being that it has to be removed from the plane and dissassembled, you
might as well have everything replace.  A couple years ago, I got an overhaul kit...it was somewhere around $14.  Being "airplane parts"...that's not a bad price.
There's around a dozen seals/rings/gaskets, as I recall in the kit.

Michael

As a private pilot, and providing you have been trained to perform the function, and providing you have the technical manual, you can service your landing gear strut per FAR 43, Appendix A, Preventative maintenance (c), item (3), "servicing landing gear shock struts by adding oil, air or both"

You would then be required by FAR 43.9 to make a maintenance record entry for the work performed.

An "aircraft owner" is not allowed to perform maintenance per the FAR's. However, as a private pilot you can perform certain maintenance intes as listed in preventative maintenance, appendix A. 


Sal S