04-23-2009 (4 hours):

Installing the axles was an interesting process. I'm in a hangar, so my "wall" is the hangar door, 30 feet away. That makes for good accuracy with this procedure, but it also means I have a very high ceiling, and hanging plumb lines is difficult (or impossible)!

What I did instead was set up a straightedge across the gear, which I know are perfectly level and straight in the fuselage right now. I measured to its midpoint, and made a mark. I then measured equal lengths from each spar tip (which is also straight, and centered) to the nose to accurately find the centerline there, too. Finally, I set a laser line generator on a ledge on the back wall of the hangar so it projected a line through these two points. It took a LONG time to set up - almost 2 hours - because even tiny errors in angle became huge offsets when cast across the 50ft depth of the hangar.

Next, I used the laser level on each gear leg right at the axle's midpoint to cast a point onto the far wall. A level line between these points and through the centerline gave me the "current" gear leg setting, and most important, the axle height. In my case my distance was 30 ft, so according to the plans this called for a 1.5in toe-in adjustment to equal 1 degree. I measured and marked these points on the wall (door).

I started to flatten the legs to receive the axles, but this was hard going for me with my wrists. Poking around online, I noticed Hicks had made up for this by setting up a flox bed, and this seemed like a good method to me. I carefully drilled two of the four holes for each axle, taped the axles and greased some long bolts to go through them, laid down a bed of flox on each gear leg, then bolted on the axles. Since the leg was still a slight bit curved, I was able to adjust the toe-in just by adjusting the tightness of the two bolts. Very small changes (as little as an eighth of a turn of the nut) translated into very noticeable adjustments. After some tweaking, I was satisfied, and I cleaned up the flox that had squeezed out and walked away to let it cure.

Trimming and backup plates

Once the flox cured under each axle, I installed the Matco brake caliper and backplate, then marked where material should be removed for a close fit. It was slow going trimming the leg ends, but I managed it with a hack saw and a fresh blade, the Fein with a cheap, throw-away Harbor Freight blade, and several Dremel sanding drums.

I then prep-sanded the area, did the BID wrap, and installed each backing plate with flox. I didn't re-install the axles for this step, opting instead to use a block on each side to make sure the BID sits flat against the flox pad I had previously built up under each axle (which sets the toe-in). This way the BID wrap is over the top of that pad. I'll be sure to check the toe-in one final time when I install the axles.

Wheels Installed

Installing the wheels was relatively straightforward now that the axles are finished. I removed the axles, cleaned up the layup area, then reinstalled the axles with the Matco brake cylinders on them. I inflated the tires to 45psi for now, and installed the wheels. Looks great! I still need to pack the bearings with grease, install the heat shields, and get the brakes set up, so I didn't torque everything down yet. I'll take care of that once the brakes are done.