Main Gear Leg Removal, -6

Has anyone had experience removing a main gear leg off of one of the tail wheel models? I have to replace my hydraulic brake line down the fiberglass encased gear leg on my -6 and have to remove the gear leg to do so. I was thinking about lifting the front of the aircraft by the engine mount with a sling attached to it using a tractor bucket or engine hoist. Need to keep wings level, however and don't know if the tail wheel can hold the added amount of weight once in the air.

Thanks for any help.

John Balbierer

Lifting an RV

Using a strap or heavy rope around the engine mount works fine. Never lift the RV by the engine hook! You can then use padded sawhorses under each wingtip to (gently) hold the wings in a level attitude.

Have you pulled the gear leg fairings off yet? Could you not somehow fit another brakeline without gear leg removal? If it's really encased in glass, why not carefully remove the glass and leave the legs installed? A zis wheel should make it easy to cut away any fiberglass.
KISS.(keep it simple)

two saw horses???

I would not use two saw horses as the valves on front loaders are known to leak a little and if the bucket drops even a little the entire weight of the aircraft would be on the wing tips. If you use one and place a sand bag on that wing it will stay level, if the bucket drops at all you will notice the other wing dropping with time to adjust as needed.

Vern said:

Using a strap or heavy rope around the engine mount works fine. Never lift the RV by the engine hook! You can then use padded sawhorses under each wingtip to (gently) hold the wings in a level attitude.

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If you use saw horses, place them at the tie-downs, not at the tips.