Nose strut

If that's the case, the important thing to check is the tail height. Sitting normally on its gear, with the proper tire pressure (verify this!) the tops of the rudders should be 75" above the ground.

If they're less than 75" high, look into installing the MLG spacers. The condition of the MLG rubber pucks may be fine... The spacers are designed to increase the height at which the plane rests on the rubber pucks. That whole system was designed for a smaller nose wheel, and since most of us have a larger nose wheel now, the MLG spacers will "jack up" the MLG to match.

The mechanic doing the annual said it’s usually about 3” (a pack of cigarettes). I don’t know where he got that from. The doughnuts on the main gear look good.

Scott,

The Ercoupe strut doesn't hold gas pressure, it's a very simple design that operates at ambient pressure.

Basically, there's about a foot of travel so when it's fully extended there's a mushroom-shaped plunger that is bathed in oil. when you start to touch down, that plunger gets pushed upwards which the oil resists and dampens, but there's a hole in the plunger that allows the oil to push through and this is a big, pencil-sized hole so there's not a lot of resistance.

Once that system "bottoms out" the whole thing comes to rest on the "taxi spring" which is internal and also down in the oil bath. The nose gear is always resting on the taxi spring when you're on the ground.

There are some great articles and photos here .

If your coupe is sitting too high on the nose gear, there are three things to check:

1. The taxi spring can break. Replacements are available from Univair (ideally via Vernon Gregory.)
2. There are two taxi spring lengths - a shorter one was introduced for coupes that were retrofitted with larger nose tires.
3. It may seem counterintuitive but a super common problem is when the nose gear is actually fine... but the main landing gear are too short! The main landing gear are internally pressurized with an orifice that allows oil to flow into and out of a sealed chamber in a "piston tube" (part #16 on the diagram on page 14 of the parts manual ). You need to open them up to check this. If you do so, note that there is a snap ring on each that must not be lost - they're made from unobtanium. 

• Check the fluid level in the MLG. This must be done with the gear fully extended (jacked off the ground) but it's not too tedious if you do one side at a time.
• Check the sealed piston tube and its orifice. 
• Check the o-ring and the bore it rides in.
• The bore in part #23 (same page) tends to wear and then a new o-ring still won't seal. Alpha Aviation has a fantastic "MLG Oleo Restoration" STC to fix this with a new seal type.
• Some nose gear wheels and tires are just too much taller than the original for the shorter taxi spring to ameliorate. Another great STC is the Alpha Aviation MLG Spacers which "prop up" the MLG so their fully compressed state is slightly higher. I have both of these STCs and they were well worth the effort to install.

I have about 4" of shaft showing between the bronze bushing and the top of the wheel fork. Why do you think yours is too high?

My nose strut is too high.  It doesn’t have a Schrader valve.  How do I fix?