07 February 2016

Finish: Tricycle Landing Gear and Engine Mount. Wheels and brake lines on.

This was a satisfyingly quick set of tasks.

The axle toe is first measured using a simple geometrical technique excellently described on page 40A-08.


The wood blocks must first be aligned (left), then the thread is attached and pulled taut (right).  The gap is best measured with the feeler gauge (be sure to keep any tape outside of the gap to be measured as the tape thickness will cause inaccurate measurements).  I found my build had toe-in on both sides:  0.32° on the right and 0.1° on the left.  I obtained Grove's 0.25° shim part 06-00925 (500x5) from Spruce to adjust the right side.  This should leave me with toe-in 0.07° on the right and 0.1° on the left.


Next the wheel bearings needed to be packed.  There's no need to spend more money to buy additional tools.  Youtube abounds with videos demonstrating how to manually do it:  Here is a video that does a fine job.  I didn't take pictures during the process, as I favored packing the bearings rather than my digital camera.

Next, the giant MS21025-24 nut must be torqued so that the U-01430 Nose Fork moves at 26 pounds of force, as illustrated on page 40A-07 (left).  That nut requires a 1.75" jaw wrench or socket.  Though I'm generally not a fan of Harbor Freight products, this cheap socket set fit the bill and worked great (Harbor has an ever-present 20% coupon, which knocks $12 off).  To measure the 26 pounds, I snagged a cheap fishing scale from Amazon (right).


I described in a previous post why I went with the Matco axle for my nosewheel.  The axle is shown on the left and placed in the wheel, on the right.  As another builder explained on his site (about 1/3 down that page) and on VAF, when using the Matco axle, there is no need to drill the Nose Fork for the anti-rotation bolt (it would anyway later interfere with attaching the fairing bracket).  The reason being that the Matco axle allows for the bolt holding the axle to be fully torqued to spec, unlike the Van's axle.


The wheels can then be mounted.


And finally the brake lines can be cut, bent and installed.  The left wheel and right leg are shown below (I may need to rebend the lines when the fairing brackets are installed in Section 46A.  The plans call for "friction tape" to hold them in place.  I had to educate myself on what that was.  I decided to purchase 3M Temflex 1755 Cotton Cloth Friction Tape from Amazon and will install it when it arrives.



So Section 40A is complete once I safety wire the brake caliper bolts.



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