Front Axle Replacement - 2 place RV and RV-10

[ScottSchmidt]

Note: For nose draggers only!
This weekend I installed the new axle assembly offered by Matco Mfg.
The purpose of this axle assemble is to decouple the bearing pre-load from the axle attachment to the fork.
This is a very nice piece of hardware.

You can find it at their website.
http://www.matcomfg.com
http://www.matcomfg.com/AXLEASSEMBLY...dv-3657-1.html

The installation of the RV-10 requires two extra spacers but the spacers make it very nice to locate the hole that needs to be drilled into fork.

Here is a picture of the parts you receive.


The installation took about 20-30 minutes. I first removed the wheel and wheel pant support, reinserted the bolt and used the spacer to locate the 1/4" hole that is drilled. This hole is used to insert a bolt into the axle assembly keeping it from rotating.


One side has the bolt hole.


And the other has the thread and nut.
You tighten the nut until the bearing does not rotate in relation to the axle assembly. During my initial installation I gave the wheel a good spin once I put the bolt in and found I needed to go one more knotch tighter. The set screw keeps it from backing out.


Pretty simple from here. Reinsert both the axle bolt and new bolt to keep the axle from rotating and torque.


The tire was also balanced while it was off.

On my RV-10 I get a vibration from the wheels at around 25-30 when decelerating. I could see from shadows that my front wheel was shaking and always thought that was the source.
After making the modifications above, the front wheel was perfectly still during some test landings and the mains were still shaking. I then did my best to balance them and have greatly reduced the shaking.

I statically balanced the main wheel and then used my buffer at 3000 RPM to spin the mains with the wheel jacked up to test the balance and found them to be way off. The weight were only placed on one side because of the brakes on the mains. I was afraid the heat would melt the glue and throw the weights if I placed them on each side. This imbalance of the weight is what I felt caused the difference between the static and dynamic test. Then through trial and error I started to get very close with the weight placement. The Dewalt buffer at 3000 rpm did a great job at taking the wheel speed above the harmonic frequency and then let it slow down to it.
I wish I had my camera to take some video to show the difference.
I would be interested in any other thoughts on balancing the wheels.

I will tackle the main wheel balance issue more in the future but the nose wheel axle works great.

[Mike S]

Scott, hard to see from the photos, but it looks like the unit has a radius machined in it that will fit the bearing radius.

Is that correct???

Thanks for the tip, and the book report.

Waiting for the 100 hour in service test/report

[gasman]

Sooooo..... Was ther a problem with the Matco nose wheel?

[ScottSchmidt]

Originally Posted by gasman

Sooooo..... Was ther a problem with the Matco nose wheel?

No, not with the nose wheel but Van's never had a great way of preloading the bearing. Trying to use the clamping force to pre-load the bearing is not great. Also the first few RV-10 kits came with steel spacers and they would rotate and cut into the aluminum forks. This was then replaced with aluminum spacers which wasn't much better. Some still had issues with rotation of the spacers and galling.
This is just a good permanent fix.

[orchidman]

I have gone with the Grove nose wheel.
Was very easy to install and I think it removes the original problem.
http://www.groveaircraft.com/rvnose.html

[Lionclaw]

Anyone know if vans will start including this in the kits? I placed my FK order on 12/29 and had the wheel removed, intending to get the grove wheel. If this works it might save me $200.

[erich weaver]

So, is this a possible alternative to the $300 Grove upgrade to fix nosewheel shimmy in the side-by-side RVs?

erich

[ScottSchmidt]

Erich, I would give Matco a call.
I do know that they tested this in an -9A and the pilot felt that it fixed the problem. They added this new axle and balanced the wheel as well.

I had the exact same shimmy with my -10 and it is completely gone after adding this axle and balancing the wheel.

Originally Posted by erich weaver

So, is this a possible alternative to the $300 Grove upgrade to fix nosewheel shimmy in the side-by-side RVs?

erich

[Mike S]

Just got off the phone with Matco, mine is now on order

Interesting that they said this is a new product just released for sale today.

Sounds like Scott may be the first one out there with this setup???

[Fearless]

Scott,

Have you flown off of turf with this new product yet to see if it helps in that situation. Am I correct in that the upgrade to the Grove nosewheel helped in flying off of turf from the various replies in the forum on the subject? A friend has a 6A with the stock Vans setup and it looked to me that the nosewheel wanted to bounce a lot on takeoff on turf. Probably just the field conditions.