The last step of attaching the gear legs is to install and torque 4 bolts on each side of the fuselage. With the tail wheel model, there’s not much going on in this area, because the gear legs are forward of the firewall, but for the tricycle model this is where the gear legs attach. Anyway, I had this in the to-do list, and tonight I installed and torqued up the 8 bolts, 4 on each side.
Tonight I bled the brake system. Following the video from Berringer, everything went fairly smoothly. I had unbolted the bottom of each cylinder so I could keep them horizontal through the process. I started with the pilot side (furthest away from the reservoir), then once the overflow bottle was about half full, I switched to the passenger side. Throughout the process I was raising and lowering the cylinders, and pumping them to purge air. I ended up doing the whole thing twice, being careful not to introduce air when reconnecting the pump, to try to get all the air out. The end result feels about right, there’s good pressure on both sides, on both pedals, and it feels pretty even. I’ll let it sit overnight and see how it feels in the morning.
Tonight I was able to set the plane onto it’s wheels, which was a big milestone! It’s awesome to see the way it sits on the ground, the angle of the fuselage, and to be able to move the whole thing more easily.
First, I torqued up the wheel nuts to 220 inch pounds and installed the cotter pins. I had been waiting on a socket adapter that finally showed up. I had anticipated needing help to set the plane on it’s wheels, but I found a solution that worked well with just one person. I slid some lengths of 3/4 inch plywood under each main wheel, 3 per side, and then chocked the mains. That allowed me to raise the tail a couple more inches, and hold it in place using a step ladder. Then I could remove the bench that the fuselage had been sitting on, and the saw horse that was holding up the tail. It was then simple to unchock the wheels and roll it off the plywood boards.
Tonight I was finally able to install the right axel and wheel.
On the right wheel I ended up with the following:
– 2×0.75 degree toe shims, shimming toe-in
– 2x NAS6604-27 bolts on the aft two holes, with standard 1x thick washers
– 1x NAS6604-27 bolt on the forward bottom hole, with 1 thick plus 1 thin washer
1x NAS6604-22 bolt on the forward upper hole, with two thick washers
All secured with standard MS21044N4 nuts, torqued to 95 inch pounds per the Beringer manual.
The close tolerance bolts required some tapping with a dowel and hammer, and torqued using a crows foot on the harder to reach nuts.
I used Bel Ray grease instead of CA1000, as advised by Beringer tech support.
Banjo fitting and the bleed port were torqued to 148 inch pounds per the manual and Beringer support (I asked about the bleed port because I had to switch it from one side of the caliper to the other).
I taped the brake line to the gear leg using 3M Temflex friction tape.
I used some short lengths of spiral wrap, secured with a high-temp zip tie.
Tonight we installed the main gear legs, and used tank sealant to install the firewall fitting for the cowl flap control.
The gear legs went were relatively easy to install compared with the tail wheel difficulties. Some grease and some gentle force were enough to insert both gear legs. Using drift pins we located the holes, then reamed the single bolt holes in both legs. With that done, caps were installed with silicon, and then the firewall fitting was installed.
I don’t have the right length bolts to install the Beringer wheels at the moment, so we are stalled on next steps.
Today was a big day, we were able to get the tailwheel installed and the engine mount installed.
The tailwheel took some work. Before I had installed the tail wheel tube into the aft fuselage, I had primed the inside of the tube. This was a problem, and the finely machined flanges inside the tube were coated in paint and the tail wheel spring would not go in. We had to carefully sand the paint out of the tube before the spring could be installed and correctly positioned. Once that was done, we used a drift pin to locate the bolt hole, then carefully reamed the hole. With the bolt in place, we were able to finish installing the tail wheel components and torqued everything up.
The next task was drilling a hole through the firewall to accommodate the control cable for the EXP119 cowl flap modification. Using a step drill, I stepped up the hole, then carefully located and drilled the two smaller bolt holes used to clamp the fitting onto the firewall. Everything came out looking good, so we mixed up some tank sealant and installed the fitting onto the firewall.
With that job complete, we moved onto the engine mount. We installed 4 nut plates, found the right hardware, carefully framed the holes, and then installed the engine mount. Would have been impossible without a helper, so I was glad to have my dad assisting. We torqued up the 6 bolts, then called it a day/night.
Today we were able to fit and ream the U-01421 and U-01431 parts, countersunk, prime, and install nut plates on the U-01418 attach brackets.
With the sticks finished, the project is to install the wheels. With my dad visiting for a week, it was a great project for us to work on together. First I located all of the components we needed. Since I’m installing Beringer wheels, and using Aircraft Specialty brake lines, we had a few different sets of hardware. No progress today, just locating components.
