Tom Martin
Well Known Member
I have changed the order of assembly a bit and mounted the wheel pants on the gear before the engine is added. The manual has the wheel pants and gear towards the end of the book but this means lifting the engine, wings etc when you mount the pants. The gear, in the air, does not care whether the engine is on or not and thus I decided to at least get the pants drilled in place.
Before mounting the tires I had used Van's method of checking toe-in/toe-out, of the main axles and found that I needed a shim on the right side. I am not sure why this happened but the manual gave a way of checking it and I had some shims in stock, thus an easy fix, and necessary before mounting the pants.
I found that with no real load on the aircraft it was not necessary to lift it off the ground. With the aircraft in a level position I could, by hand, pick up each side of the aircraft, at the engine mount, and relieve the pressure on the gear. Once each gear was lifted and the aircraft levelled again, subsequent lifts on the gear yielded no further movement. I suppose there might be a small change if left hanging but balancing that with the risk of jacking made it a good trade off in my books.
Van's parts and methods are spot on for the wheel pant installation. Typically this is one of my least favourite jobs but I was able to do it from start to finish in 6 hours. There is still some glass work, screws, etc to be done but now I can let the tail down and finish this stuff at a later date.
I would highly recommend positioning your wheel pants prior to mounting the engine
Before mounting the tires I had used Van's method of checking toe-in/toe-out, of the main axles and found that I needed a shim on the right side. I am not sure why this happened but the manual gave a way of checking it and I had some shims in stock, thus an easy fix, and necessary before mounting the pants.
I found that with no real load on the aircraft it was not necessary to lift it off the ground. With the aircraft in a level position I could, by hand, pick up each side of the aircraft, at the engine mount, and relieve the pressure on the gear. Once each gear was lifted and the aircraft levelled again, subsequent lifts on the gear yielded no further movement. I suppose there might be a small change if left hanging but balancing that with the risk of jacking made it a good trade off in my books.
Van's parts and methods are spot on for the wheel pant installation. Typically this is one of my least favourite jobs but I was able to do it from start to finish in 6 hours. There is still some glass work, screws, etc to be done but now I can let the tail down and finish this stuff at a later date.
I would highly recommend positioning your wheel pants prior to mounting the engine