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fitting landing gear leg

larrys

Well Known Member
When fitting the landing gear leg it is just a bit short, lower then the hole on the top bracket it bolts to. I am trying to work it up to that height but it is about 1/2 the bolt diameter short on both sides. Is there a trick to fitting the leg higher? Or is a little filing needed on the leg's pressure points fitting into the holder?
Though I better ask this question and not file or grind until I understand.
Thanks, Larry
 
See if it's the powder coat that's causing your grief, I had to remove about 1/16th or so of the powder coat to get a proper fit.
 
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If you can't get the gear leg high enough to match the U-01404 and U-01405 pieces (blue, below) because the gear leg binds in the U-1402 piece (red, below), you may need to remove material from the leg (in addition to the powder coat). This was an issue I ran into when I attached my gear legs. My experience is described in that link in much greater detail.

gear%2Battachment.png


A consultation with Van's elucidated that during the Main Gear Leg's manufacture, the heating and bending processes can cause the edges of the leg to bow outwards, effectively increasing the thickness of the leg (in the fore-aft/longitudinal axis). They advised me that is was acceptable to file down the edges of the gear leg to achieve proper fitment.

I removed material from the fore and aft faces...

IMG_7232.JPG


And powder coat from the outboard faces...

IMG_7217.JPG


If desired, you can spot prime the exposed areas with a light coat of your preferred primer (I suggest not using a water-based primer on steel, lest you get flash rust, something I learned about when priming the aileron pushrods).

A couple of other things to watch out for..

You may need a shim at U-01405 (mind the bolt length if you do)...

IMG_7297.JPG


Also, keep in mind, per Van's, that the U-01403 Gear Attachment Bar should not be flush against U-01402 Lower Gear Brace since if it were, the gear leg may not be properly captured by the Gear Attachment Bar. You should see a gap there (e.g., mine was 0.03" on the left side). In other words, if you don't see a gap here, you may have removed too much material from the outboard/inboard face(s) of the gear leg.

IMG_7343.JPG
 
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Just put on the main gear and I had to do the same filing that E did to get the attachment point to slid in far enough to get the bolt in.

Not sure about shims yet. Will find out tomorrow when I torque down the bolts.
 
I didn't need shims. No gap on right, about .008" on left before torquing, down to about .006 after torque. Discussed with mothership and they said check it every condition inspection - if it opens to .016 or close to it put the shim in then.

A bit of fore-aft length adjustment seems to be the norm. I followed "E's" procedure and it was a piece of cake. His documentation saved me serious time and heartache.
 
I did not appear to need shims. I have not check the gap, if any, at this point. I couldn't get a shim in if I tried with the bolts not in place.
 
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