Wheel Install Questions

Was installing the wheels on the gear, and had a few questions I was a little unsure about:

1) The allen bolts that thread into the nose fork are used to limit angle-travel of the nosewheel, correct? Does anyone have a spec. for what those should be torqued to?
2) The main nut on the main wheel is supposed to be tightened "to eliminate play" before the cotter pin is marked and drilled. Does this mean tighten it until it is snug and the wheel just becomes a little bit more difficult to spin? Or should it be backed off until there is no lateral play but the wheel spins freely? I hate the technical aspect of the "snug" torque spec.
3) If I am planning to conduct initial flights without wheel pants, is it okay to leave the wheel pant brackets installed? I.e. can the inboard and outboard brakets on the main and/or nose wheel be left on without the wheel pants?

Thanks,
Scott
7A Finishing

Not sure about the torque on the Allen bolts.

I set my wheel bearings by tightening the nut till all play is out of the bearings and I start to feel resistance to turning the wrench and the wheel. Then I back off to the nearest hole in the nut and secure it with the cotter pin.

I flew with the brackets on and the wheel pants off. In fact, I fly during the winter that way so I don't get snow jamming my wheels.

Roberta

Hi.........

Hi Scott,
The allen bolts are not critical and I've seen a Glasair without them so that the nosewheel can do a 180 while pushing the airplane backwards. Just make them good'ntight......I know, I dont like the just "so" either.

The wheel bearings should have a little pre-load. Snug is a good word. You do not want play in the bearings.

The wheelpant brackets can stay......mine did for 75 hours before I got around to mounting the pants. Other guys have said that the wind makes them vibrate and crack....it's your call.

BTW, after we installed all the upper and lower intersection brackets, fairings and wheelpants, we picked up over 17 MPH and 250 FPM!!.....Yes, we were happy campers..

Regards, and welcome aboard.........

main nuts

Clean the threads of both the axle, and the nut, well. Make sure the nut can be installed all the way on the axle------without the wheel assembly in place------before you try to install with the wheel. This should be something you can do by hand, no wrench needed.

Tighten up until the wheel starts to drag, and then give the wheel a few good thumps with your hand, or a rubber mallet, trying to drive it farther on the axle. If it moves, or the drag on rotation goes away, tighten up the nut and do it all over again.

The goal here is to have all of the misc parts seat in the proper location. All lateral free play needs to be gone before you drill the axle for the cotter pin, and you should have a small "Pre load" or slight drag, but NO slop.

Mike

Thanks all for the advice.

I'm pretty irritated at the moment, as it appears I ruined one of the wheels while drilling the hole for the cotter pin. I got everything set to the right tightness, then marked the hole in the axle with a punch. I tried to find the valley in the thread, but it still seemed to completely distort the threads when I hit the center punch. Getting the nut off then obviously required putting the nut in the vise and twisting the gear rod.

I was cursing most of the time and just trying to get it off (not taking my time), and it appears I chewed up part of the wheel on the corner of the vise somehow.

Two more questions from this frustrated builder:

1) How do you drill for the cotter pin without completely trashing the threads (and making it near impossible to get the nut off)? Should I just drill it with the nut in place?

2) Does this wheel appear salvageable? Any advice?

Yes

Hi Scott,
Yes, drill through the nut and threads in one run. We used a long drill and were careful to not let the teeth of the drill "chew" on the rim.

File the burrs off the wheel as best you can and maybe spray them with a matching rattle can paint but don't fret over this too much. The pants are going to hide it anyway...

I've also padded the vise with paint stirrer sticks when I'm holding aluminum parts. A couple of rubber bands will hold them on the vise jaws. An old inner tube also works well to keep from scratching parts.

Enjoy,

Wheel Advice

I talked with Vans on the damage to my wheel, and their response was "no problem, dress it and it should be good".

I sent a picture to Cleveland as well. They apparently forwarded it to one of their engineers, and he felt it needed replaced. One wheel half through AC spruce is $200 (!), and I am trying to avoid that if at all possible (although I also don't want an unsafe wheel).

Any additional expert advice on whether this acceptable? I'm sure Cleveland is taking the conservative approach, but I don't want to assume too much.

Also, does anyone know of a cheaper source for a wheel half?

THanks,
Scott
7A Finishing

Just finished drilling the axel for the cotter pin

I used a slightly different method than Pierre. As others have mentioned, I mounted the wheel and tire assembly and made sure the nut was snug and one of the holes in the axel nut was horizontal (my preference). I used a 12 inch #30 drill and started the hole (just enough so the #25 used later would not walk) using one of the cotter pin holes in the axel nut as a guide (did this to both sides). Removed the nut, wheel and tire and installed a #25 high quality (cobalt) 3 inch drill bit in a medium duty electic drill. The slower tuning electric drill works better than a high speed low torque air drill. Using a little Rapid Tap drilling lube, the #25 drill bit easily goes thru the axel. I drilled each side independantly. Cleaned up the threads, retested the nut on the axel, installed the wheel and tire with the cotter pin. I did mine on the bench but you could easily use this method with the landing gear legs installed (wheels off the ground of course).

Ditto Chino Tom,

Did exactly the same thing last night on my RV7, put the big nut on, snug, used 12" #30 drill, some duct tape on the rim so it does not scratch. drilled the first hole use the cotterpin hole in the nut as a template.

Fit a shorter #30 drill in that hole so to keep the hole and nut aligned, and repeat drilled the other side of the nut with the 12" #30 drill.

The nut came of without any interference...no thread was harmed...I think it is a much better method than the instructions tell you to do with a punch.

Remove the wheel rim, then I just drilled from one side through both holes to ensure the alignment is good with #30, then enlarged mine sligtly to #28.

Regards
Rudi