Nose Gear SB Done

[zilik]

This weekend I installed the new improved version of the A model nose gear. I modified the gear leg myself. Was not an easy job but doable. What I was really worried about was cutting off the 1" after threading it. As much work as it took to thread the gear leg I figured it the hard leg would turn my metal cutting bandsaw blade into a butter knife. It turned out to be the other way around, the gear leg was like butter to the blade. Three minutes and the 1" was gone. I sure wish the threading had been as easy.

What really bummed be out was after all was said and done my max speed stayed the same. I figured for all that work I should have gained at least 5 knots

[pczar3]

I have read the raging battle about doing or not doing the mod yourself. What did you use to do the threading? Thanks for sharing!

Paul

pczar3
N694BP reserved

[zilik]

Originally Posted by pczar3

I have read the raging battle about doing or not doing the mod yourself. What did you use to do the threading? Thanks for sharing!

Beer and sweat! I used a adjustable die and a die holder that had 18" handles and a 4 foot cheater bar. With the split die it takes many passes over the threads with each pass cutting the threads a little deeper. We mounted the leg in a vise and started threading. One guy doing the threading and the other holding the other end of the gear leg so it would'nt twist out of the vice. Later we got smarter and mounted the gear leg to the top of my work bench using 3 "U" bolts. This worked much better and allowed for single man threading.

The results of this "do-it-urself" were the same as if I had sent it to langair. The only up side is that you could pull the gear in the morning and have in installed by nightfall if you stayed out of the beer. It did not quite work that way for me but in the end it did cost just a little less (not counting the cost of the beer) than sending it in.

I would strongly suggest sending your gearleg to Langair for resizing. I was amazed at how much work (read manual labor) it took to thread 16 more threads on the leg. Imagine a nice hard 5 hour workout at the gym and it sort of equals threading your own gearleg.

[pierre smith]

Originally Posted by zilik

I would strongly suggest sending your gearleg to Langair for resizing. I was amazed at how much work (read manual labor) it took to thread 16 more threads on the leg. Imagine a nice hard 5 hour workout at the gym and it sort of equals threading your own gearleg.

I'd never do it again....it was a real workout for us too. We had a good split die that a friendly machine shop owner ordered for me. I had asked that he get a good quality die. Well, $95 and a day and a half later, after having to re-sharpen the die six or seven times, we finally got the nut to go the extra inch.. I agree,....send it to Langair.

Regards,