Dec 31, 2023     Brake leak fixed - (1.0 hour) Category: Landing Gear

Had tiny leak in brake fitting on right brake. Had to remove, clean threads and chase threads with tap to get fitting to seat where I could re-attach brake line. By carefully removing brake line with parking brake set and controlling bleed valve, I was able to accomplish all without having to do a full brake line bleed. In process, I had to cut the safety wire and remove the brake assembly to do my repair. All went back into place and pressure test with parking brake to hold pressure showed no leaks. Brake bolts re-installed and re-safety wired. Safety wire went real quick this time....less than 5-10 minutes instead of 1/2 hour or more last time.

  Aug 12, 2022     Nose gear install - (2.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Nose gear installed.

  Aug 10, 2022     Nose gear strut plug - (2.0 hours) Category: Landing Gear

Spent about an hour making plug for nose gear strut to seal inside against moisture long term. Easy enough but thought that as long as I was going to mix some Hysol, I would final bond butt rib closeouts. Spent about an hour fiddling with the closeouts to get them to fit better and then figure how/what I needed to do to get intimate contact on upper door frame. I realized that some of door hinge mounting will go through the multiple angle bend of the closeout panel that mounts at the top of the door frame. I had to be sure that area fit very well. Of course, Hysol all over my hands and a dozen paper towels to clean the mess. Maybe, this is the last Hysol I have to mix.....not holding my breath

  Jul 21, 2022     Brake lines bleeding - (2.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Now brake lines fitted and nuts tightened, time to add hydraulic fluid and bleed the brake lines. I've never done this before so will be a totally new experience. Going online for some hints. Firewall not yet installed so had to rig up a temp hydraulic fluid reservoir until final install of firewall and mounting of "real' fluid reservoir.

  Jul 21, 2022     Nose gear trial fit and plan for final install - (2.0 hours) Category: Landing Gear

Spent an hour or so trying to do a trial fit of nose gear to fuselage, Had to re-ream pivot blocks and fuselage holes to get ideal hole match to allow bolts to pass through without binding. Came up with a game plan to do final nose gear install: Trial install nose gear without firewall in place using temp bolts so all very visible, then one by one replace temp bolts with final bolts, torque nuts as needed all time with nose gear strut supported. Then final install firewall and engine mount then attach nose gear piston.

  Jul 20, 2022     Nose gear - (6 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Several shorter sessions over couple days working on Nose Gear. Trying to fit bearings into 5 bushings. Had to remove powder coat. Went to Lowe's and got what paint remover they had (environmentally friendly, even). Painted it on and let it set for 30, 60, 120 minutes......did nothing. Got some of my PolyBrush reducer, soaked a paper towel with reducer, put wet/damp towel into bushing and sealed with masking tape. Waited over night for test bushing and just 30-40 minutes for the others. With a little scraping, all coating came out.
Press fit bearings, my ass... Can press a size 6 bearing into a size 5 hole no matter how hard you push.....been there and done that!! So I locked the bearings into a vise and did the "shoe-shine" trick with 1 inch wide belt sanding strips. On average, took about 40 minutes per bearing to get to fit. Glued them in per manual.
Also assembled rubber donuts for nose gear piston and test fit. Test fitted nose gear pivot blocks to fuselage, test fitted nose wheel yoke to nose gear strut.
Test mounted nose gear assembly to fuselage and came up with plan on how to perm mount gear and get 4 bolts into fuselage and be able to see and access mounting holes before firewall installed.

  Jul 19, 2022     Brake lines - (2.0 hours) Category: Landing Gear

After fabric covering of console and re-installation of same, I re-connected brake lines onto parking brake and to fittings on landing gear. Then tightened all the nuts.

  Jul 18, 2022     Console, side panels fabric cover - (3 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Trimmed and glued fabric to console and console side panels. I had been quite nervous about doing this and had put off the task for several months. Went pretty easy. Spray glue I used is very tenacious and have to be VERY careful as NOT able to reposition fabric once the glue surfaces touch. Correct initial alignment during glue is a must.

  Jun 20, 2022     Wheel pants - (6.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Started trimming and fitting of wheel pants. First thing I had to do was put the fuselage rottisere frame back on to lift weight off the wheels. Had to remove the wheel for part of the fitting. Over trimmed the wheel opening on the bottom for the right pant. I guess, obviously, that I don't know how this wheel pant is supposed to fit onto the gear as after carefully cutting out inside of both wheel pants exactly to the template supplied that was suppose to allow pant to fit over the gear and brake caliper.....yeah....right. Hours of trimming later, got both to fit, with screw holes drilled out (well oversized to get 4 screws to fit) and last step to bond the aluminum spacer on outboard axle bonded to the inside of wheel pant. At this point I realized that I had mounted wheel pants to parallel the inside vertical edge of the gear strut instead of being vertical to the ground.....so pants are set at an inboard angle as plane sets on ground. Oh well. We'll do test flights with and without wheel pants and see how much of effect they have. If significant and I choose to keep them on most of the time, then I'll consider "straightening" them and putting on little doors to access air valve. As of now, wheel pants have to come off to service the tire....a real pain.

  Jun 18, 2022     Axle and wheel fitting - (1.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Axle mounted along with torque plate and wheel plant mounting plate.

  Jun 17, 2022     Fitting Grove gear and clamps - (3.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Spent couple of hours fitting Grove gear to fuselage. Fuselage worked well turned on its side. Gear was able to be propped up next to fuselage on its side and all fit perfect where it was supposed to go. Such a tight fit for the four clamps to hold gear required removal of of paint on gear and clamp surfaces. Then all fit perfect.

  Jun 11, 2022     mounting of tires and tubes on wheels - (2.0 hours) Category: Landing Gear

Decided to mount tires. Only issue, was took a couple of days to find tires and wheels in the garage. Hadn't put my hands on them in over 2 years. I went online to find YouTube video on changing AC tire. Once I got the hang of it, didn't take long to mount the wheels.....a WHOLE lot easier than a motorcycle and and even easier than doing a bicycle tire.