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9A Gear Weldment

Av8torTom

Well Known Member
I was test fitting hardware store bolds into my spar web and discovered that the gear weldment hole for the wing bolts is a bit in the way. Brake lines and fuel lines and wires are run and I REALLY don't want to pull the weldments out to ease those opening. Any other suggestions? I can't be the first one this has happened to. :eek:
 
Sure it just isn’t excess powder coating on ID of holes. I would remove coating with small x-acto knife from ID of holes.
 
Ha! This was my biggest hassle in the whole project. I feel your pain.

I got the bolts (both temporary and ultimately the close tolerance versions) to fit, but boy was it a struggle. The weldment is certainly in the way so pay attention to the direction the bolts are inserted as they are not all oriented the same way. Not all the temporary bolts need to be inserted while you are working on the wing root projects.

When doing the final installation, don't feed the bolts that are interfering with the weldment all the way through the spar as you will never get the nut on if they protrude too far. I ultimately ground an open wrench down to fit whatever access was available. As I recall I was able to turn only one flat at a time. Also - make sure that you finish all the tasks while the wings are temporarily installed - you don't want to have remove/reinstall them any more than you have to! Best advice - there are many that came before so do some serious searching on this forum.

I've told a number of people that I'll sell my project before I try and remove the wings again. Only half kidding!

Seriously - best of luck. You can do it.
 
Thanks

Thanks guys. Of course the problem is the gear leg tube is blocking access the that one hole in the weldment, so if I do need to clean-up that hole it's going to be a challenge. I'll try and get some pictures.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your best bet is to pull the weldments and enlarge the holes. You risk damaging the threads of the close tolerance bolts if you don't. I recently went through this and had to enlarge all of the holes on both weldments for the spar bolts. Cleaning it up in place risks damaging the spar.
 
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