Van's Air Force
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Installing and Torquing gear weldment nuts?
- Thread starter ccrawford
- Start date
Noah
Well Known Member
Used a Spring Scale!
Corey, Here's what I did:
I took an old box-end wrench I had lying around, 7/16 on one end, 1/2" on the other IIRC, and cut it in half. Then I took a piece of roughly 16 in. long steel tubing I had lying around (the "spine" from an old lamp IIRC) and flattened the ends in a vice, so that the body or "handle" of the wrench would fit inside it. Then I inserted the handle ends of the wrench into each end of the tubing, and "swaged" it in place in the vice (you could also proseal it or rivet it or whatever). I drilled a hole in the middle of the steel tube so that it was 10 in. from each box-end wrench, and made a loop of safety wire sticking out of the hole.
I use a spring scale pulling on the loop to set the proper torque. The AN3s require 25 in-lb, so 2.5 Lbs on the spring scale X 10" = 25 in-Lb.
Took about 5 minutes to make and now I have it hanging from the wall of my shop. In fact, I use the spring scale to do quite a lot of torquing!
I was able to dig up a photo of this prior to making the loop with safety wire.
Good luck!
Noah
Ex Littleton Resident & Lockmart Waterton Canyon MechEng
Corey, Here's what I did:
I took an old box-end wrench I had lying around, 7/16 on one end, 1/2" on the other IIRC, and cut it in half. Then I took a piece of roughly 16 in. long steel tubing I had lying around (the "spine" from an old lamp IIRC) and flattened the ends in a vice, so that the body or "handle" of the wrench would fit inside it. Then I inserted the handle ends of the wrench into each end of the tubing, and "swaged" it in place in the vice (you could also proseal it or rivet it or whatever). I drilled a hole in the middle of the steel tube so that it was 10 in. from each box-end wrench, and made a loop of safety wire sticking out of the hole.
I use a spring scale pulling on the loop to set the proper torque. The AN3s require 25 in-lb, so 2.5 Lbs on the spring scale X 10" = 25 in-Lb.
Took about 5 minutes to make and now I have it hanging from the wall of my shop. In fact, I use the spring scale to do quite a lot of torquing!
I was able to dig up a photo of this prior to making the loop with safety wire.
Good luck!
Noah
Ex Littleton Resident & Lockmart Waterton Canyon MechEng
Just did them today. Used a box wrench on the nut inside the spar space and held it steady, and a torque wrench on the bolt head. Ideally, you want to torque the nut, not the bolt head, but I could not figure out a way to do (not being as smart as the above poster - nice trick).
Jamie
Well Known Member
If I remember correctly (it's been a while now!) Van has you put the washers under the bolt head on the bottom bolts. The top ones the washers are under the nuts.
I surmised (guessed) that this so you can torque the bolt heads without marring up the spar. Torquing the nut instead of a bolt head is a rule of thumb, not a stead fast rule. Of course you're supposed to calculate the drag on the bolt and add that to your torque calculation.
Those bolts are a bear. Buy a cheapo wrench that you don't mind modifying (read: grinding down) and it'll make your life a lot easier.
I hope I never have to remove my wings!
I surmised (guessed) that this so you can torque the bolt heads without marring up the spar. Torquing the nut instead of a bolt head is a rule of thumb, not a stead fast rule. Of course you're supposed to calculate the drag on the bolt and add that to your torque calculation.
Those bolts are a bear. Buy a cheapo wrench that you don't mind modifying (read: grinding down) and it'll make your life a lot easier.
I hope I never have to remove my wings!
Jamie - I recall my plans do not show this. I'll recheck tonight. Makes sense though. With the AN4-12 bolts, they are not long enough for a washer on both the bolt head and nut - has to be just one side unless you use longer bolts. As for drag, I always measure it with a beam type torque wrench and add just add it on to the usual range (50-70 inch pounds for the AN4 bolts).
