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Wing bolt problems...

airguy

airguy

Unrepentant fanboy
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Tonight I started putting in the close-tolerance bolts in the left wing, attaching it for the final time (I used standard hardware bolts before). I have come to the conclusion that it's not physically possible to get a wrench on the bottom outside NAS-7 bolt nut in the forward gear leg support. I can get a wrench on all the top bolts no problem, and the bottom outside AN4 bolt I managed to get with only a little trouble - but no amount of cursing or banging or pushing or twisting would allow me to get a wrench on the 5/8" nut for the bottom outside NAS-7 bolt. Nothing doing, no way, no how. I'm pretty sure the bottom inside nut can be reached, and I know the bottom inside AN4 nut can be reached, but I just can't see for the life of me how to get a wrench on that bottom outside large bolt nut. I've gotten the nut started by finger quite easily - but I need hydraulic fingers to do anymore than that, and the wrench hits the gear leg support no matter how I contort myself and approach it.

Now tonight after a long hot shower and well into my second properly mixed Crown and Coke, I think I might be able to sacrifice a 5/8" wrench on the grinder and slim it down enough to fit - how did you guys do it?

kynf.jpg
 
Norman CYYJ said:
Reverse the bolt and put the nut aft.
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Not possible - there is no room to get it in past the gear tower. There is barely room to squeeze the nut in there - and you can't fit the nut in that space if the bolt is driven all the way in first, you have to just barely show the threads then start the nut, then drive it in a bit more and spin the nut, then drive it a bit more, etc etc.
 
airguy said:
Now tonight after a long hot shower and well into my second properly mixed Crown and Coke, I think I might be able.............
Click to expand...


You are on right track Greg. Properly mixed Crown and Coke is the right approach. Don't worry about the bolt it will go in. :D
 
Vlad said:
You are on right track Greg. Properly mixed Crown and Coke is the right approach. Don't worry about the bolt it will go in. :D
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"IN" was not a problem - a bit of lube and a 2x rivet gun on low pressure, all of them drifted right in with no real issue at all. The problem is how to torque the nut on that one bolt that I can't reach...

I liked the 2-year old post mentioned above from ArveeNiner, I think I'll try either grinding down a wrench or a needle-nosed visegrips tomorrow, just something to hold the nut stationary while I turn the bolt. He used a hemostat, and I've got one with curved jaws but I don't think that will work - but I do have a long extended-nose set of visegrips that I think will reach in there.

I know one thing for CERTAIN now - I will carry full hull insurance on my airplane - because if I ever screw it up, and those bolts have to come out, I'm hiring it done!
 
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Law of building and airplane: Minor nuisances will increase exponentially in aggravation the closer one gets to completion. :D
 
Spar bolts

Greg- Sacrifice a cheap wrench- mine had to be thinner than you would think- hemostat would not hold mine, but the ground wrench did.
 
Oh boy, I'm going to be doing this tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. We attempted mounting the wings today, but my hardware store bolts needed a bit more grinding that I originally did, and I had a hard stop at noon. Back at it tomorrow with some better tools and techniques.
 
Find an open end wrench that has the opening turned at an angle instead of straight out from the handle. Fit that on the nut. Torque the bolt.
 
Jam the nut

On at least one of the 5/8" nuts, I had to jam it with a flat bladed screwdriver while I turned, and eventually torqued, the bolt.

Good luck! You will get it!
 
rzbill said:
Find an open end wrench that has the opening turned at an angle instead of straight out from the handle. Fit that on the nut. Torque the bolt.
Click to expand...

That's what I've been using, but the meat of the open end is pretty substantial, and I think if I grind it down to about half of what it is now, I might be able to get it on. The wrench doesn't have to hold much torque - just enough to torque that nut - so I should be able to grind it down quite a bit. It wouldn't be the first time (and probably won't be the last) that I made a "sacrificial tool" in the name of assembling an airplane.
 
Did this a couple weeks ago

Well actually did it twice. Cause I drove the bolts in al the way and the nut doesn't fit. DONT DO THAT. Drive them in 90 % of the way like in the photo.

To hold onto the nut while turning the bolt I propped a large flat bladed screwdriver against the nut and turned the bolt. I also bought a thin crows foot crowbar from HF and sawed one of the feet leaving someone thing that looked like a flat screwdriver bent at the end. Then I pryed this against the landing gear and nut while turning the bolt.

It took 2 days to do this, the first day spent cursing Van :)
 
My recent experience

I got my wings mounted today. The first lower outboard bolt (AN4) is probably the hardest one to get the nut on. I used some tape and an offset wrench to lower it in place, then turned the bolt from the aft side with a socket wrench. The big lower outboard bolt is too close to the weldment to get the offset wrench on there. Once the nut is on, you can't get the wrench off! I used a short 5/8" open ended wrench and could just get it on the nut. The problem here was in torqueing down the nut. The shorty wrench wasn't long enough to provide sufficient counter torque and it ended up wedged in place up against the fuel lines and weldment. We finally popped off the wrench with some leverage from a screwdriver. The other lower inboard bolts were a bit easier to thread on and hold during tightening. The upper bolts are all MUCH easier! :)
 
I got mine done today as well!

The lower outboard AN4 was actually pretty easy for me - I dropped a long handle 7/16" wrench down through one of the holes in the top of the weldment to get on that nut, it was pretty easy approaching it from the top. The next one in, the bottom outboard large NAS nut, that's the ugly one to get to. I managed to get it today with a jammed flatblade screwdriver and then continue to turn the bolt. On the next one I was able to just barely get the wrench on it, but I couldn't hold it and turn the ratchet on the bolt at the same time, and the wrench kept slipping off - so I used the screwdriver again and that worked fine. I did end up having to pull my fuel and brake lines out to get room to work in there, and now I'm in the process of putting all that back together before attaching the aileron pushrod.

Don't forget the pair of AN4-13 bolts in the middle of the spar that go into the nutplates, that seems to be something that a lot of builders miss, according the DAR's.
 
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