Today I installed
the wheels on the main gear and installed the nose gear and nose wheel. It was a great day. I moved Arlene's car onto the driveway and
pulled the airplane into the open area of the garage. Because the "creeper" I purchased
to help me work under the fuselage, I spread a moving pad on the floor slab
under the airplane and spent the morning getting up and down and under the
airplane. I set up a couple of work
tables and brought out the tools, wheels, plans and other supplies and got to
work. I dismantled the disk brake
assembly to the point that I could install the appropriate components on the gear
leg. I started by installing the axel on
the right gear leg. I also installed the
disk brake assembly using the same bolts.
I was sure to install the correct caliper on the correct gear leg. I made sure the brake fluid bleed valve was
on the bottom of the caliper assembly.
After installing
the axels on both gear legs I taped on the spacer blocks and stretched a string
across the gear legs. It turns out the
axels and parallel and there is no need for shims.
Using the tool I
purchased a couple of years ago I greased the roller bearings for each
wheel. I used Areoshell 5 as called out
in the drawings. I then installed the
main gear wheels on the axels. I
tightened the nuts as instructed in the Matco documents and inserted the cotter
pins.
I then turned my attention to the
nose gear. I worked on the nose gear
fork. I tapped the holes and inserted the
cap screws and washers as instructed. I
used the microstop to countersink the nose gear fork for the proper
rivets. I then separated the
anti-rotation plates and riveted them to the nose gear fork.
I installed the
axel through the nose wheel and bolted the assembly in the fork. I used the luggage scale to calibrate the
tension of the front wheel fork on the nose gear. I had to tighten the nut quite a bit to get
the 26 lbs force to turn the wheel.
After the installation of the gear was complete I removed the saw horses
and set the airplane on its wheels. I
feel really good about that.
I rolled the
airplane out onto the driveway, moved Arlene's car back into the garage and
turned the airplane around before putting it away.
