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N983LK
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Date:  7-30-2020
Number of Hours:  6.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Landing gear bolt retainer clips

Sanded off the dark colored primer using a random orbital sander. I ordered some light grey primer so I’ll re-prime once I get that.

Applied spot putty to the micro exposed by sanding off the primer.

Began the process of reinstalling the landing gear. Started by bolting the RH side wear plates and the RH inboard U-bracket.

Installed the main landing gear retainer clips in the RH gear tower. These clips are sold by a fellow RV-8 builder who came up with a solution to one of the biggest maintenance headaches with the RV-8. As designed, the bolts install with the heads underneath the fuselage and the nuts are inside the gear towers. To re-torque the bolts, a task that’s required periodically, two people are needed, one outside the aircraft and one inside doing contortions to reach in to the gear towers to access the nuts. With the improved concept, the bolts go in from the top and the bolt heads fit tightly into “U” shaped clips which are long enough that they will contact part of the gear tower structure if the bolts start to turn, and prevent any further turning. This allows the nuts, which are now on the outside of the aircraft, to be easily torqued by one person.

Getting the clips in place took a lot of effort due to the tight space, and I found that they had to be modified by grinding notches in them to clear some of the small nuts and bolts in the gear tower.
After some effort I got the two on the right hand side modified and installed.
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Raw clip (L) and modified clip (R)

Raw clip (L) and modified clip (R)

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Clips installed in RH gear tower

Clips installed in RH gear tower

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