Well, running out of things to do (there’s still plenty…) and thought I’d give the landing gear bracket a look. Pulled out the pieces at 7:00 am and one thing led to another…
Next thing I know I’m knee deep in landing gear.
First things first, getting the leg into the bracket for a test fit was a bit of work. Seemed like some of the powder coating was jamming things up, so I sanded sown some areas right outside the contact patches on the leg and sanded both sides of the inside of the tube. After fit-refit, it started to come closer to the holes lining up. This would be the theme for the day…
Eventually, I got the leg on far enough to align the holes (bracket and leg). The instructions tell you to drill with a 0.311″. That’s mighty specific, and not a bit size I have. Off to research…
It didn’t seem like a 0.311″ bit was very common, but I did find two online. One for $130, and one for $7.
I decided to see what others had used, and the first build log I came to noted a 0.311″ reamer. Wait a minute… I do have a few reamers I’ve never even taken out of the package. Sure as shit, one is a 0.311″ reamer. Thank you, Cleveland Aircraft Tool, for such a complete tool kit.
So I reamed the hole out and was pretty happy with the result. Now we’re off to the races.
For brevity, I’m going to hit the rest of this in list form. The entire left leg and mount took me about 5 hours. And I was exhausted by the end.
- Remove the outer panel bracket. It just gets in the way of everything.
- Remove the two outer flange nutplates. They should have never been installed before this step.
- Remove the AN4-34A bolt and spacer. Some flex in the spar is needed to get the bracket in.
- Trail fit the bracket. It’s tight, but you should be able to get it close to seated. Make note of two areas: the bottom-most rivet on the skin doubler around the spar and of course the elliptical hole in the bottom of the skin. I was quite proud of the fit of my bracket, but unfortunately with all the other pieces in play you needs some extra room to get it seated. The bottom-most rivet required I relieve some of the material from the weldment with a round file. (No square notches or sharp corners here!)
- From the bottom, mark where the skin needs to be removed. This took about 12 separate fit-refit iterations. In the end, I had a pretty even hole around the weldment, though a bit more room that before.
- Once it fits, remove it. Here I prefit each bolt through the bracket. Sometimes the powder coating made the fit a bit tights–best to relieve this now than trying when space is limited and angles are tight.
- Once the bracket fits most of the bolts fit in quiet freely, not binding. Before the lower skin was completely free from contact, I found several of the bolts stiff to get in.
- A washer is needed on a single bolt, just next to the spar upright doubler (F-704C). I hit mine with a light coat of spray adhesive and placed it on the weldment. It held enough to keep it there through the installation.
- Replace the weldment. Add bolts starting with the hole that requires the extra washer.
- Begin fastening the weldment. Torqueing bolts appropriately. Lower bolts required the use of a magnet to “ring toss” the washer and tape to keep the bolt in the wrench.
- The 5 holes just in front of the spar are drilled through and bolts added and torqued.
- (Bullet point reserved for when I finally figure out how to match drill the forward holes in the weldment arm–one is completely blocked by the forward rib flange.
I decided to test fit the gear leg, though it likely will not stay. As cool as it looks, I could use the space. And I’m afraid I’ll just trip and further injure myself.
The work was difficult, and took a long time. However, progress was constant the entire time, which kept frustration to a minimum.
The plane needs another cleanup, and the forward screw holes need to be drilled, but otherwise the left side is complete.
