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Nose wheel pant - Help!

Fearless

Fearless

Well Known Member
My kit has the one piece U-713C style wheel pant brackets. The plans says to tape a 7/8 spacer to the top of the wheel - which I did. I looked through the archives and found mention of a dimple on the sides of the wheel pant - which I marked. The aft portiion of the wheel pant has a measurement of 6 13/16 off the surface. The measurement of the center of the axle bolt to the surface is 5 1/2. With the spacer on and the center of the aft portion of the wheel pant off the surface at 6 13/16 I get a measurement of 5 7/8 off the surface to the dimples which places the wheel pant high off the nose gear leg compared to the drawings. The geometry doesn't look right to me when looking at the drawing. My gear leg fairing would need alot of trimming as well which doesn't seem correct. My wheel doesn't have a load on it while I am doing all of this as well. What have the rest of you found in this situation?

Also it is a pain in the you know what to get the wheel pant to go over the two brackets while you are trying to fit the thing.

If anyone has pictures they could post or forward me that would be great.

Frustrated in Kentucky
 
Thanks Bobby - But

Thanks Bobby but the picture isn't close enough to really help. I does look like maybe you had the new style pant brackets though. I am hoping someone has done this recently and see if their measurements are remotely close to what I posted. Or tell me what they ended up with. I'll put this task to the side and wait to see if I get anymore responses.
 
IIRC

Widen the opening in the aft section for the tire. Slip the pant on from the rear.
The forward top edge of the aft section of the nose wheel pant (whew) comes to within about 1/4" of the gear leg. There's your fore-aft positioning. Lengthen the tire slot as req'd.
Use the spacer for forward end vertical position.
Use your calibrated Mk20/20 eyeballs to adjust the aft height and lateral position.
You'll most likely have to build up the inside areas where the mounts and the wheel pant attach.
Use a bright light (or xray glasses) and a marker pen for the mounting hole locations.
It will take a few tries to get it to your liking.
 
I am fighting nosewheel pant too :) I've heard that during initial fairing positioning and alignment the front leg should be "unloaded". Is it an important factor? I tried to lift the nosewheel by pushing the tail down and can not determine how much the leg actually springs. Could somebody give me an approximation of "up-and-down movement"?


Corrected: found the measurement 5 1/2 with NOTE 1: Dimension given with the longerons level and no deflection in the tire. All geometry is understandable no need to "suspend" the nosewheel.
 
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