Nosegear creaking
 

Check the fit in the motor mount socket. Apply some inspection torque paint at the socket/leg location and check for movement after it dries.

Creaking..
 

Hi Scott!
I agree with Gasman, you need to make sure the gear isn't twisting in the socket at the mount. I had the problem on my -6A, had a slight motion in this area. Cured the problem by installing a close tolerance AN bolt.
Are you sure it's coming from the nose gear? Another -6A I know of was getting a creaking noise, ends up the main gear weldement bolts needed retorquing.
Good Luck!

On initial assembly, I greased the sockets of the gear legs as per the manual (or I thought). I removed the gear legs (all three) at about 2 years, as the right main was creaking when taxiing on grass or rough pavement. I was quite surprised at how the grease had vanished. There was a lot of burnishing and some galling going on in the pressure contact points. I found the thickest grease I could find, and upon removal a few years later, all was ok. I would suspect that the socket is dry where the gear goes into the motor mount. I had some difficulty removing the gear legs during that first inspection. I think the heat in the engine compartment thins the nosegear grease and the breeze going by drives it out. You could try putting some oil liberally on the top of the gear where it is flush with the motor mount, and some into the bottom. If the noise goes away, you have found where your problem is.

Would it make sense to insert grease fittings in these locations?

Charlie Becker
N464CB 8A
Finishing

Rotational movement in mounting bracket
 

I have 90 hrs on a 9A mostly flying off sod strips and was experiencing nose gear creaking (especially noticeable when moving the a/c with a tow handle).

Following damage to the wheel pant I decided to instal the newer design gear leg and offset fork. When the weight was removed from the nosegear (pull the rear tie down eye down to a floor anchor) it was possible to generate rotational movement in the gear leg indicating that the retaining bolt had probably enlarged the holes in the engine mount bracket.

Grease would not be a solution as once movement starts the holes will probably continue to enlarge.

I am going to instal the new leg with a taper pin which will hopefully avoid the need to remove the engine mount every time to extract the alternative close tolerance bolt as I have very restricted access on my installation. I will probably have the pin fabricated with an exposed thread on the thicker end to facilitate removal.

Rupert Clarke

To remove the nosegear, I think you can get the nosewheel high enough by simply weighing down the tail. I put a block under the tail, and put 3 or 4 40# bags of salt to hold it down. You may have to remove the nosewheel. I would think the 7A model will be easier to obtain clearance than my 6A.

Regarding the hole elongating, I've written a bit about this before. It seems to be good practice to see if a close tolerance bolt will go in instead of the normal AN bolt. A taper might be a problem in that it will do all the work at only one end, and you may never get the nosegear out again. I had a heck of a time getting mine out the first time at around 200 hours or so, because the normal AN bolt had upset things enough where it was REALLY difficult just to remove that bolt.

Very common problem... Vans to blame.
 

Vans approves the use of a 5/16" DRILL to drill the gear leg to engine mount hole (on ALL the gear legs including the nose). Well that is very poor advice and as a result many builders do not have a snug bolt to start off with.

What is required is a reamer, and an adustable reamer is even better. This will provide a snug "tap-in" fit. If the fit is not snug in the first place then the bolt sits on less than the full circumfrence of the hole thus causing areas of high stress which results in elongation of the hole. This exacerbates the problem further.

If the hole is sloppy then torqueing up the bolt is useless for removing movement....it works until the first landing.

If you used a drill to drill out your gear leg/engine mount holes then that is almost certainly your problem. If the bolts simply slid in without needing a mechanical tap in the first place then they were too loose. Now you probably have "bruising" of the mount holes as well.

The answer is to buy an adustable hand reamer (range 5/16" to 11/32") and instal a NAS oversize bolt (21/64"). Bring up the hole in very small increments of a approx .002" at a time and test fit the bolt in stages until you have exactly the tightness of fit you want. In mine I need a positive tap with a computhane hammer to get them in...that's what you want.

Bolt source
 

Bob... do you have a source for the oversize bolts?

I tried to find them for a friends RV-6A with not much luck. He was lucky, and said that most of his slop went away when he replaced the bolt. I guess sometimes the mount is heat treated during welding to be harder than the bolt... :)

I guess an NAS1105- with a -X (1/64 os) or -Y (1/32 os) as a suffix...

gil in Tucson