taildragger firewall/bottom skin interference with main gear legs

[alpinelakespilot2000]

The engine mount and main gear legs on taildraggers interfere with the firewall flange and bottom skin. I assume a little of each needs to be trimmed off. Can anyone point me to a spot on the drawings where it indicates that one or both need to be trimmed (or scalloped) to allow the main gear legs to fit into the mount sockets? Thanks.

[dan]

I don't recall which drawing showed it, but the instructions mentioned it iirc. Regardless, you DO need to trim the outboard corners of the bottom firewall flange. Press on...

[N941WR]

Steve,

As Dan said, you will have to trim the flange back to slide the gear legs in.

I had to trim them back even with the firewall. Yours may be different so as usual, it is a cut a little, fit the leg, cut a little, fit the leg type of operation.

BTW, after you get it on the gear and before you hang the engine, put two bags of shot back on the tail. (and you didn't know what you were going to do with those bags after you finished the flaps.) It will be very easy to tip it over w/o the wings and tail on.

Good luck!

[mburch]

I think the only mention of this in the plans is one line in the FWF "before you hang the engine" checklist. Anyway, I did this last month and used a PVC pipe coupler as a stand-in for the gear leg so I didn't have to lift the fuselage up onto sawhorses just yet. A little less work that way. Photos here:

http://www.rv7blog.com/index.php/200...xing-day-work/

Steve, I think you and I must work at the same pace - you are always either a couple weeks ahead or a couple weeks behind me.

happy building,
mcb

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Thanks for the help guys. It's what I suspected after lots of looking through the drawings and plans. I'll just try to go slow and take off the least possible. Today my big chore is to figure out how to drill the first mount hole in the firewall. When I put the mount up on the firewall, all of the predrilled 3/16" holes in the firewall are off by about 1/32+ compared to the mount holes. I guess I just try to split the difference on all of them? The instructions say to square the mount to firewall, but how do you do that? What does "square" mean in the context of a welded mount? There's not a straight line on it to determine what's square!

Originally Posted by mburch

Steve, I think you and I must work at the same pace - you are always either a couple weeks ahead or a couple weeks behind me.

Got you confused about my building pace, don't I Matt?! Actually since I picked up the finishing and FWF kits in late Nov. I've been skipping around a whole lot between the two kits. I did all the rollbar fitting first, but I'm really at a standstill on the rest of the canopy because it's too cold to cut. It seems like I go out into the garage each day and spend half my time just figuring out what do that day. From here on out it seems like I'm on my own to decide what to do in what order. More days than not it's been little things like drilling a hole in the firewall, or installing a gascolator, or going back a replacing a few rivets on the back of the fuselage, or trying to figure out how to drill for the engine mount, etc. etc. I still use your website fairly off so make sure you stay ahead of me! Good idea on the pvc pipe stand in for the gear legs.

Thanks again to all.