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O/B Landing Gear Nuts

Doug94

Well Known Member
Having just taken the time during our "stay-at-home" period to complete this years condition inspection I was determined to tackle one of the long standing issues...the o/b landing gear nuts in the gear tower.

I completed my 8 seven (7) years ago and in that time I have struggled with one particular nut and was never really satisfied with the torque I was able to get on that nut. I've tried making tooling to get to that nut and have never gotten a good bite to facilitate a solid torque. As an aside, if I was building an 8 today the most rewarding thing I would do is affix a permanent structure (socket, a couple of welded widgets, etc) that would allow me to check the torque from below without spinning the nut. Fighting with the fuel line directly above the nut and the AN3 bolts from the side just add additional challenge that I would like to overcome. I'm happy to report that I did finally find a tool that did fit and is now a permanent part of my gear tower. After grinding and shortening sockets, manipulating off set box end wrenches, cutting up open end wrenches, cutting steal wedges, and trashing my shoulders getting to those nuts I stumbled into the right tool for this application. For anyone struggling with these fittings what worked flawlessly for me was a Snap On 1/4" drive 9/16" 12 pt crow foot Flare Nut. After fighting with trying to get something to fit this crow foot slid right over the top, the stub of the crow foot rotated directly into the angle and wouldn't you know it, I was able to torque this perfectly. Time to buy a couple of more!

The crow foot cost me $15 used, I should have found this years ago. I hope if you are challenged by these fittings that this may be of help to you.

Fly safe...

Doug
 
Doug,

Thank you for posting. Can you go to shop.snapon.com and confirm that ?1/4" Drive 12-Point SAE 9/16" Flank Drive? Deep Flare Nut Crowfoot Wrench? item number AN85089B is the same tool you?re describing?

The description in your, ?Snap On 1/4" drive 9/16" 12 pt crow foot Flare Nut? does not include the words, ?Flank Drive? Deep Flare?.

At the cost of $37 each I better be certain before buying.

Also, does the tool remain on the nut? Is it trapped somehow.

Thanks again for posting.
 
Charlie question

That is exactly the one Charlie - I sent you a PM. They are pricey but well worth it!!!
 
Having just taken the time during our "stay-at-home" period to complete this years condition inspection I was determined to tackle one of the long standing issues...the o/b landing gear nuts in the gear tower.

I completed my 8 seven (7) years ago and in that time I have struggled with one particular nut and was never really satisfied with the torque I was able to get on that nut. I've tried making tooling to get to that nut and have never gotten a good bite to facilitate a solid torque. As an aside, if I was building an 8 today the most rewarding thing I would do is affix a permanent structure (socket, a couple of welded widgets, etc) that would allow me to check the torque from below without spinning the nut. Fighting with the fuel line directly above the nut and the AN3 bolts from the side just add additional challenge that I would like to overcome. I'm happy to report that I did finally find a tool that did fit and is now a permanent part of my gear tower. After grinding and shortening sockets, manipulating off set box end wrenches, cutting up open end wrenches, cutting steal wedges, and trashing my shoulders getting to those nuts I stumbled into the right tool for this application. For anyone struggling with these fittings what worked flawlessly for me was a Snap On 1/4" drive 9/16" 12 pt crow foot Flare Nut. After fighting with trying to get something to fit this crow foot slid right over the top, the stub of the crow foot rotated directly into the angle and wouldn't you know it, I was able to torque this perfectly. Time to buy a couple of more!

The crow foot cost me $15 used, I should have found this years ago. I hope if you are challenged by these fittings that this may be of help to you.

Fly safe...

Doug

This is one of the more poorly designed areas of the -8, IMO. Michael Foss has a nice website where he details the mod to drop the bolt down from the top so you can check the torque from the underside. Here is the link http://www.rv8-hangar.com/gear-bolt-mod/ I tried to get a hold of the guy who made these, with no joy. They would be simple enough to make, or something similar. It's on my list. I don't know what I would do without the tower mod with the removable panels.

I have the 12 point nuts, so I purchased a Snap On 1/4" Drive 7/16" Deep Flare Crowfoot 12 point socket, and it worked pretty well. You can grab them on ebay for $25-30 new or 1/2 that used. I also picked up a set of harbor freight https://www.harborfreight.com/8-piece-sae-offset-box-wrench-set-32041.html and cut the 7/16 wrench and then did some grinding on it and torqued one from the bottom. I know it's wrong to torque from the bolt side, but for one of the nuts, it was the best I could do. This is by far my least favorite item to cover during the conditional inspection.

Brian
 
Having just taken the time during our "stay-at-home" period to complete this years condition inspection I was determined to tackle one of the long standing issues...the o/b landing gear nuts in the gear tower.

I completed my 8 seven (7) years ago and in that time I have struggled with one particular nut and was never really satisfied with the torque I was able to get on that nut. I've tried making tooling to get to that nut and have never gotten a good bite to facilitate a solid torque. As an aside, if I was building an 8 today the most rewarding thing I would do is affix a permanent structure (socket, a couple of welded widgets, etc) that would allow me to check the torque from below without spinning the nut. Fighting with the fuel line directly above the nut and the AN3 bolts from the side just add additional challenge that I would like to overcome. I'm happy to report that I did finally find a tool that did fit and is now a permanent part of my gear tower. After grinding and shortening sockets, manipulating off set box end wrenches, cutting up open end wrenches, cutting steal wedges, and trashing my shoulders getting to those nuts I stumbled into the right tool for this application. For anyone struggling with these fittings what worked flawlessly for me was a Snap On 1/4" drive 9/16" 12 pt crow foot Flare Nut. After fighting with trying to get something to fit this crow foot slid right over the top, the stub of the crow foot rotated directly into the angle and wouldn't you know it, I was able to torque this perfectly. Time to buy a couple of more!

The crow foot cost me $15 used, I should have found this years ago. I hope if you are challenged by these fittings that this may be of help to you.

Fly safe...

Doug

I was HOPING to hear that you were changing out the **** stamped NAS679 nuts and replacing with the high-strength 12-pt NAS1804 nuts.
 
NAS1804 option

Actually I did change out the standard nut. I don?t recall the specific nut I used, but it is a 6 point high strength locking steel nut that was being recommended throughout VAF about 8 years ago. Today I would use the 12 Point nut you referenced. I?ve never lost torque yet...just never got it just right. Regardless these nuts are difficult to reach, even through the cut out access panel in the gear tower. For anyone building now - address this while you can. After the plane is done getting down there and contorting yourself to try and reach those nuts is a real b#*t*@
 
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