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Nose gear

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Fedico94

Active Member
I am fitting the nose gear leg U-603-3 to the engine mount. I note that the end of the leg is not tapered and I can pass the gear leg through its socket and the lower collar and entire leg can pass through the mount. Is this the correct fit ? I do not note any significant play in the assembly.
My Concern is due to reports of failure of the AN5-20A bolt on VAF and the potential for the gear leg to shove up through the firewall.
This nose gear, I used a micrometer on the end of the gear leg and note no taper (1.248 top and bottom of butt end) I have already drilled the engine mount to the firewall. I do not detect any significan play in the gear leg when seated in the socket.

I need some reassurance or hand holding.:eek:
 
As I recall, the fit is relatively loose. Now the fit of the main gear, that was tighter than a ..., well, it took some effort to get in place.
 
Fedico94 said:
My Concern is due to reports of failure of the AN5-20A bolt on VAF and the potential for the gear leg to shove up through the firewall.
Click to expand...

Really??? Yikes! I have yet to hear of this failure occurring. Who's had the bolt fail? Please provide links to the threads where you saw these reports.

BTW, I don't think the mains are tapered either. They're a nice snug fit, but they will slip all the way through the sockets. If the bolt fails on any of the gear legs, the gear leg will potentially shove up into the cockpit like you said. That's a pretty scary scenario, so I sure hope you're wrong about there being occurrences of these bolts failing.
 
roee said:
Really??? Yikes! I have yet to hear of this failure occurring. Who's had the bolt fail? Please provide links to the threads where you saw these reports.

BTW, I don't think the mains are tapered either. They're a nice snug fit, but they will slip all the way through the sockets. If the bolt fails on any of the gear legs, the gear leg will potentially shove up into the cockpit like you said. That's a pretty scary scenario, so I sure hope you're wrong about there being occurrences of these bolts failing.
Click to expand...

I would like to see this thread too... never heard of such an event myself.
 
could happen on main gear too

The main gear tubes are not tapered either. At least in my plane, they were snug, but not overly tight. I used the regular bolt.

I can't imagine that much force going up the axis of the gear leg. Most will be vertical, and will be against the gear tube side.

BTW - my certified plane uses essentially the same main gear attach (with an added stupid rubber thingy) and they use a close tolerance bolt to hold the gear leg in the socket. It is plenty loose (yes, I've removed the gear leg :eek:) IMHO Vans main gear attach design look OK.
 
RV9A nose gear

My information source for the bolt failure is from the RV Builders Hotline of 30 May 2009. Reference was to VAF RV8 Forum "RV-8 gear nuts and bolts" of 5-19-2009. I have gone to Van's for advice but have not had a reply.\
Thank you for the information at least I know what is considered a normal state in regards to the nose gear fit.
 
I think if you read all the details, that bolt failure was on the main gear for the RV-8 using Grove aluminum landing gear as well as the Grove supplied mounting hardware. This has NO relation to the mounting system used on the nose gear or even the mains on the rest of the fleet of RV's
 
eurof2 said:
I think if you read all the details, that bolt failure was on the main gear for the RV-8 using Grove aluminum landing gear as well as the Grove supplied mounting hardware. This has NO relation to the mounting system used on the nose gear or even the mains on the rest of the fleet of RV's
Click to expand...

Ah, glad to hear it. I mean, not glad for the unfortunate owner of that RV-8, but... you know what I mean. Thanks for clearing that up.
 
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