Harley O. (Pete) Britton
Member
The longer I worked inside the RV-8 gear towers with vent lines, brake lines, all the weldment screws and wiring, the more I thought about laying on the cockpit floor trying to get a socket on those nuts when it came time to mount the gear and do annual condition inspections/maintenance. I have heard a lot of builders comment on the unpleasant task of working in those gear towers. Anyway, I think I have come up with a simple mod to make gear bolt/nut torquing much easier.
I purchased four inexpensive 9/16" stubby wrenches from Lowes at $5 each. I cut the box end portion of the wrench off with just a bit of the handle remaining and ground it to fit down inside the gear weldment where the outboard gear nuts are located. I cut, ground, and fitted each of the four "mini-wrenches" to fit the four bolts. Using JB Weld, I then epoxied the landing gear nuts into the wrenches and let them cure. Since the four special fasteners were custom fitted I marked them so I wouldn't mix them up during installation. Since pictures are much better than words I have attached a couple photos that should be helpful.
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I purchased four inexpensive 9/16" stubby wrenches from Lowes at $5 each. I cut the box end portion of the wrench off with just a bit of the handle remaining and ground it to fit down inside the gear weldment where the outboard gear nuts are located. I cut, ground, and fitted each of the four "mini-wrenches" to fit the four bolts. Using JB Weld, I then epoxied the landing gear nuts into the wrenches and let them cure. Since the four special fasteners were custom fitted I marked them so I wouldn't mix them up during installation. Since pictures are much better than words I have attached a couple photos that should be helpful.