The instructions are basically a 1 liner; Insert gear leg into socket, install one bolt. done.

What they should say is: look all over Wichita for aeroshell 22. Ukraine war, covid, supply chain, whatever. Ultimately give up and use what Airparts is selling as a substitute, then pack wheel bearings, then spend several hours with emory cloth sanding off excess powder coat.

So, now that I've vented that, here's what happened. Evidently there's a shortage of grease, Who knew. Airparts told me they were struggling to get Aeroshell 22, but they had Royco 22CF which complies with the same mil-spec which qualifies as "or equivalent" under the matco manual.

Was somewhat surprised to unwrap these bearings and discover that they were 100% dry No protective grease, cosmoline, nothing. Thankfully they don't seem to have picked up any rust while they were sitting. Packed them by hand with royco, then set them aside and started working on gear legs.

I raised the front of the a/c about a foot with a lift sling laced through the engine mount and a cherry picker engine hoist.

Some guys evidently have no trouble with these, and some talk about having to hone the sleeves, ice bath the legs, all sorts of stuff.

In my case, The bolt holes in the socket were undersized, so I reamed so I could get a drift into it, and then honed to get rid of burrs and powder coat that had found it's way in there. The hone I somehow still own is a brake slave cylinder hone originally used to rebuild the drum brakes on a 1968 MGB I owned in college approximately 30 years ago. How is it that I knew exactly where that thing was, but I can't find the cleco pliers that were in my hand 30 seconds ago?

Anyway, trial fit of the left led revealed that it wouldn't slide up all the way. Several cycles of on off to determine where it was hanging up. Ultimately discovered that the powder coat abutting the lower bearing surface has a lip that conflicts with the socket. Spent about an hour with fine sandpaper and scotch bright removing paint. I didn't want to take off any more than necessary and leave bare metal sticking out the bottom of the socket, so it was very much a case of take a little off, trial fit, take a little more off, rinse repeat.

Ultimately ended up removing about 3/8" of powder coat on both the upper and lower sides of the lower bearing surface to get them to slide up far enough in the socket. Since the assembly is (hopefully) never coming apart again, I gave them a healthy dose of marine waterproof wheel bearing grease, coating the inside of the socket and bearing surfaces.

Of course, the second one went much faster.

Got a bolt in both sides, installed wheel fairing mounts on axles, then installed wheels. Also installed brake calipers, and discovered that the starboard one isn't sliding freely on the pins. Investigated and discovered that the backing plate that had brass bushings for the pins to ride in was riding up on some weld beads on the mounting flange on the axle. When you torque it down, there is enough flex that it's binding up the pins.

I dressed the welds a little bit with a jewelers file and they are better, but still not perfect. I was running out of time and didn't want to leave it swinging overnight, so I went ahead and put the wheel back on and put the gear on the ground fr the first time ever.

I still need to drill the axle nuts for cotter pins, so I think I'll take this back apart and see if I can get it fitting better/sliding freely while I'm doing that.