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Nosewheel pant bracket cracks at axle hole

dcflyer84

Active Member
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Anyone else seen this on their -10s? Down for my yearly inspection and AMT found these cracks. He's repairing, but I'm speculating cause. Similar stories? Edit: just to clarify, there's a crack on both brackets, left and right. As you can see, the crack occurred in exactly the same spot and is nearly identical on both brackets.
 

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I don’t know. But this is the area that slides under a washer, which holds it in place. Should not be a loose fit.
 
Make sure you get a picture of the repair he makes. I am really interested in how he is going to do it. It is a weak spot and considering the wind force on the wheel pant, it is not surprising it has a crack.

I am working on my nose wheel pant right now and had considered beefing it up a bit.

Thanks
 
Will definitely post the repair pics when he's finished up. The repair is basically going to be a doubler of same thickness as bracket that covers the axle hole plane and then bends to cover the adjoining plate. Re-drill the axle hole and not cut the slot back into it. Don't know if he'll re-drill the lightening holes, or not; he's not finished yet. He sees no need for the slot, and I agree, because if you're going to be working on that area in any serious way you'll have the nosewheel off the ground and wheel removed anyway. Also, the slot only weakens the part, especially around the axle hole. This repair ought to be stronger and last longer with no slot for sliding the bracket on and off.

I'd be there helping him, but I'm busy working my day job so I can pay him and keep my -10 in the air! LOL

AAAANNNNDD...I want it ready for me to fly to OSH end of next week!
 
I don’t know. But this is the area that slides under a washer, which holds it in place. Should not be a loose fit.

Looking at the second photo it would seem the bracket was loose. Note shiny ring around axle where the spacer washer goes. Also note lower right area of slot where the black smudge is, and black smudge on the bracket at the axle bolt/washer. First photos shows this a little, but very obvious in second photo.

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I used a spacer washer that was a bit thinner than the bracket, and a large area washer under the bolt head and the nut. I had to loosen up the axle bolt to slide off the bracket but I did not have any cracking. With the front of the pant off, it is easy to loosen the nut a bit so the aft pant section can slide off after removing the socket head bolt and stand off.

Did you do anything for polishing/deburring the slot during the build?

Do you get the nose wheel off the ground as soon as you can on take off, and keep it off as long as you can when landing? Have you tried balancing the nose wheel assembly?
 
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Longer axel bolt if you double up

One thing to consider is if you double it up, you may need a longer axel bolt. I got a longer one so I could add a couple washers to help keep my tow bar hooked up.

The only reason I can see for the slot is not having to take the axel out to take the wheel pant bracket off and I agree with you - maybe not needed.
 
The safety wire on the front bolts leads me to believe that you don’t understand how that is supposed to work.
The two front Allen screws are all that need to be removed ( via holes in the fairing) to slide the wheel fairing off the back. The axle bolt uses regular washers as spacers and a larger washer to hold the bracket slot onto the fork.
You don’t ever remove the screws that go into the bracket anchor nuts.
If you have bad nose wheel shimmy, that might cause the cracks.
 
Looking at the second photo it would seem the bracket was loose. Note shiny ring around axle where the spacer washer goes. Also note lower right area of slot where the black smudge is, and black smudge on the bracket at the axle bolt/washer. First photos shows this a little, but very obvious in second photo.

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I used a spacer washer that was a bit thinner than the bracket, and a large area washer under the bolt head and the nut. I had to loosen up the axle bolt to slide off the bracket but I did not have any cracking. With the front of the pant off, it is easy to loosen the nut a bit so the aft pant section can slide off after removing the socket head bolt and stand off.

Did you do anything for polishing/deburring the slot during the build?

Do you get the nose wheel off the ground as soon as you can on take off, and keep it off as long as you can when landing? Have you tried balancing the nose wheel assembly?

Certainly possible it was a little loose but not enough to detect on a preflight. I didn't build it, so I don't know about the polishing/deburring the slot.
Yes, I get the nw off the ground ASAP and hold it off on landing.
I have not tried balancing the assembly and don't recall if the other IAs who've done the past annuals have ever done it.
It has had some shimmy in the past--seems to loosen up not long after a re-adjustment on breakout force. May be time for new washers.
 
The safety wire on the front bolts leads me to believe that you don’t understand how that is supposed to work.
The two front Allen screws are all that need to be removed ( via holes in the fairing) to slide the wheel fairing off the back. The axle bolt uses regular washers as spacers and a larger washer to hold the bracket slot onto the fork.
You don’t ever remove the screws that go into the bracket anchor nuts.
If you have bad nose wheel shimmy, that might cause the cracks.

Perhaps not, if you're addressing me, the OP. I didn't build it and I have pros do the condition inspections. If it's safetied, they thought it needed to be. All the guys I've used for inspections maintain other RV10s as well, so I <ahem> assumed <ahem> they knew what they were doing. While typing at this moment, I don't have access to the plans to verify one way or the other. I will have a closer look when I get back to the hangar.

As for the removal procedure, do I hear you saying that the 8 screws/4 per side, that hold the wheelpant aft fairing on should never be removed? Just remove the allen screws and slide off the back? This makes the slot in the bracket make sense, if so. Enlighten me.
 
As for the removal procedure, do I hear you saying that the 8 screws/4 per side, that hold the wheelpant aft fairing on should never be removed? Just remove the allen screws and slide off the back? This makes the slot in the bracket make sense, if so. Enlighten me.

Correct. The brackets shown with the cracks in the photo stay attached to the fiberglass rear fairing.
Remove the screws that hold the front and rear fairing together.
Remove the forward half of the fairing
Remove the 2 allen screws, through the 1" hole in the rear fairing.
Slide off the rear fairing (including the brackets shown above).
 
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As for the removal procedure, do I hear you saying that the 8 screws/4 per side, that hold the wheelpant aft fairing on should never be removed? Just remove the allen screws and slide off the back? This makes the slot in the bracket make sense, if so. Enlighten me.

Correct. Easy-peasy, just remove the two allen screws and the whole "tail" slides right off.
Here is the 6/7/8/9A design. I'm guessing the 10 is similar, perhaps supersized.
 

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Thanks for the explanation and diagram. Very helpful! My question now is about the axle bolt--if it's properly tightened, wouldn't it need to be loosened for the bracket to slid off? Or, is the axle tight on its own and the bracket just slides across it between the washers? Sorry to be so dense about this but this is all new info to me about how to remove this fairing and I've had the plane 3+ years and taken the nose wheel fairing off a number of times, just not this way.
 
As another poster said, just get new brackets, they are inexpensive. No use taking the time to repair. ( unless they are backordered)
 
The axle bolt attaches with 3 washers on each side 2 normal diameter and a larger diameter washer. The normal diameter washers serve as spacers to allow the fairing bracket slides on and the larger diameter washer prevents the bracket from moving laterally.

Attached is the drawing showing how the axle attaches.
 

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Like FL-Mike says

I am not sure why everyone wants to remove the screws, but this is not needed and hinders the job. Just loosen the allan bolts and slide off, please. This is how it was designed.
 
Thanks, all, for the comments and advice. You don't know what you don't know until someone tells you or you find out the hard way. Never knew about the removal procedure for the nose fairing until I posted this thread. Not the builder so behind the power curve on this stuff.

Anyway, attached are the pics of my repaired brackets that are able to be removed properly for future work. And YES, the photos are not flipped correctly. Sorry. Get over yourself.
 

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Good looking repair job.

The extra thickness at the slot will reduce the wallowing out of the end of the slot, bit of a bonus.
 
<snip> You don't know what you don't know until someone tells you or you find out the hard way. Never knew about the removal procedure for the nose fairing until I posted this thread. Not the builder so behind the power curve on this stuff.
No worries, that's the beauty of this forum.
And why I suggested to the buyer of my 6A that he do a condition inspection with me. There were a few "I would not have known that!" moments (like that nosewheel faring removal), and he found a few things I had missed.
BTW, nice repair.
 
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