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Big hands-little holes @ landing gear bolts

AN23

Well Known Member
Our new to us RV-8 needs to have the torque checked on the landing gear bolts. The gear towers have not been modified and I have Godzilla sized hands. I have checked all the threads, bought the snap on crowsfoot and I'm getting ready to attempt to, I guess, find my nuts by feel. Anyone have any late breaking, super secret way to do this? I am going to use my cell phone tomorrow to try to get a photo of them. If they are the original style, I'm probably going to replace them with the stronger ones.
 
I hope you're not a proctologist, but I digress! :eek:
I don't have any specific guidance for torquing the current configuration,
but, if you have to change the nuts, you might consider flipping the bolts and using the bolt-head retainers so you can torque from the bottom.
Available from Bruce Brielmaier
 
Thank you

Not a proctologist but my wife says I can be half of that operation! Yes, if I have to change them, that's what I will do.
 
Mirror - light - socket extension

What I do is remove the front seat back, put some foam rubber down, and lay down to get easier access. Then, using a mirror and a flashlight, and a socket on an extension, you can get in there. I usually pay for this for a day or so after with soreness and back stiffness. :eek:

I have thought about trying to use a USB borescope and then stay in the seated position - might work.
 
Boy oh boy, this is so much fun. I decided to change the nuts to the 12 point high strength NAS version (see this thread: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=42630 for more info). This allows a 7/16 box end wrench to fit over the nut. I then cut a 7/16 wrench to a length that allows the wrench to lay flat in the steel channel inside the landing gear box. Once the wrench could lay flat, it was essentially locked in place and I could then torque from the bolt head side (yes, add torque to compensate for additional drag etc etc). It took me a couple of days of cursing Van's name, bleeding from many cuts and scratches before I finally figured out how to do this by myself. Of course, you have to remove the old nuts first and that's an adventure as well, but once you invest the time and replace those nuts, and make up the cut down wrench, it shouldn't take long to do this.
 
Boy oh boy, this is so much fun. I decided to change the nuts to the 12 point high strength NAS version (see this thread: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=42630 for more info). This allows a 7/16 box end wrench to fit over the nut. I then cut a 7/16 wrench to a length that allows the wrench to lay flat in the steel channel inside the landing gear box. Once the wrench could lay flat, it was essentially locked in place and I could then torque from the bolt head side (yes, add torque to compensate for additional drag etc etc). It took me a couple of days of cursing Van's name, bleeding from many cuts and scratches before I finally figured out how to do this by myself. Of course, you have to remove the old nuts first and that's an adventure as well, but once you invest the time and replace those nuts, and make up the cut down wrench, it shouldn't take long to do this.

Mark, just curious. How much torque value do you add when you torque the outboard gear bolts from the bolt head side?
 
Mark, just curious. How much torque value do you add when you torque the outboard gear bolts from the bolt head side?

I don't remember exactly, because I used the torque wrench to determine what torque it took to rotate the bolt without the nut on it. As I dimly recall, the values were different from bolt to bolt.
 
Bolts

Thanks Mark. Looks like another "special wrench" may be just down the road.
 
Anyone know who makes the little triangular shaped bolt retainers/stop that you can use to kind of lock in the bolt? I do know that when doing this you reverse the bolt intallation(nut under cover instead of bolt head.
 
Yes, I know. I?ve installed several of these. Bruce Brielmaier. [email protected]. Flip the bolt around and torque it from the bottom. One man operation. Takes 30 seconds. Saves pints of blood and lots of skin, plus loosing your religion. I suggest updating the nuts to the ones suggested here on this website to prevent the standard stamped nut from ?jumping? a thread or two. The standard nuts can?t handle the load, although the newer nuts that Vans supplies look a little different than the original ones. The voids in the stamping on the nut is filled, so could be a little stronger. At any rate, take a look at those nuts. Bruce?s bolt retaining clips will do the trick. No need to stress over it every CI, no need, actually, to modify the gear tower access openings because you most likely will never need to go in there.

If you use the Grove Al gear legs, you may have to modify your upper gear leg intersection fairing because the Grove gear bolts are longer, and the nuts on the bottom (or bolt head) may protrude a little. Not a problem for anyone with average third grade art school skills.

You won?t be disappointed with Bruce?s gear bolt clips. The last set I replaced, I did with the airplane sitting on its gear in the hangar. Remove one of the nuts (difficult, because it?s inside that gear tower), remove the bolt (may require ?tapping? it with your rivet gun on LOW pressure - inside the gear tower - use an offset rivet set), install this removed bolt from the top, with the new BB bolt retaining clip in place - no washer required or desired - again maybe needing to tap it lightly with your rivet gun, low pressure, with the offset rivet set. Make sure the flats on the bolt align with the clip in the channel of the gear weldment. Don?t worry about ruining your nice cupped rivet set. You will be using a light thumping pressure. Install the nut and washer on the bottom of the bolt, torque to spec, and then do the other on that side.

It took me longer to write this post than it took to actually do the job. And all future condition inspections on this area became a simple, easily accomplished event. Torque seal/paint on the nut makes checking this critical fastener a simple task to be checked more routinely.
 
Not a proctologist but my wife says I can be half of that operation! Yes, if I have to change them, that's what I will do.

I just ordered mine last week and they arrived today. It was cheaper to buy 10 where I bought mine than 4 from other places. Same on the nuts.

If you want 4 sets ( 4 bolts and 4 nuts ) I have 6 sets left over from my order and I'll give them to you at my cost $10.13 per set plus shipping to you. Shipping to me was almost 25% of the cost of the bolts, which is ridiculous because there are cheaper ways to send them, but they only do UPS. They were still cheaper than other places.

I'll give you a copy of my invoice and the 5 pages of Certificate of Conformance that I got for them so you know the paper trail.

PM me if you want them.
 
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Check PM and thanks

Don't know why the PM opened but won't let me reply :confused:

Anyway, tracking number is 9500110100870154140647. He told me it'll show online later this afternoon.

Send me your email or phone number via PM ( I can see the messages but can't reply, don't know why ) so I can send you a copy of my invoice and the 5 pages of Certificate of Conformance because I would have had to bend them all up a lot to fit in the box so I left them out.
 
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