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 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