The correct bolts for our landing gear arrived, so we were finally able to attach the gear to the fuselage. The gear managed to get a couple of paint scuffs during the process of threading it through the opening we made, but these were minor and can be touched up easily enough.
Next we proceeded to install the axles, brakes (by Matco), and wheels. The wheel bearings had to be greased prior to installation, and we used a nifty plastic device that has a plunger to force grease into the bearings. This worked well. Once attached, we torqued all the bolts down to the proper value and applied torque seal. The large castle nut on the wheel was installed with a cotter pin.
 |
| Pushing grease into the bearings |
 |
| Main landing gear and wheels attached |
We installed 3 rivnuts around the lower rear fuselage opening that will be used to attach the bottom rear coverplate.
 |
| Installing rivnuts with a special puller tool |
Next we planned on doing some work on the aluminum turtledeck prior to painting it, but first needed to temporarily attach the rear windshield bracket as the turtledeck rests on top of it. We ran into a bit of a problem here because of a few issues. We had previously placed and drilled this bracket, but when temporarily installed with Cleco's, it didn't line up correctly with the right and left root rib. We're not sure what happened, and maybe it slipped when it was last drilled (many moons ago). Also the bracket had a few odd bends to it so the back edge was not straight, and the bracket angle didn't line up with the root ribs, either. We considered ways of recovering from this and rebending the bracket, but decided to just order a new bracket and redrill it. The bracket was only $16 from Just, which made it an easy decision. Hours: 9.5
No comments:
Post a Comment