Brief Description: Longer bolts exchanged rt. landing gear mount - ho
After reviewing Vans Air Force & finding that our 12 bolts as called for in the plans were too short & would need to be replaced by 13's, we exchanged the bolts and while the right mount was out we made a template of the extension holes in the mount. We torqued all the longer bolts, but we had to torque them from the bolt side because of clearance. We therefore placed the washers under the heads rather than under the nut and also lubed the bolt shank with boelube in order to decrease the error in torqueing this way. ... We then made a template of the undersize bolt holes in the extension and back-drilled the one hole we could reach and clecoed the template on the outside and drilled blind the other hole. Our template directed us right into the inside hole. We then enlarged both holes, countersunk the skin for the #10 screws and installed and torqued these (see image 2 & 3). The brake line hole was also drilled to size. We now have 5 more holes in the plate to drill but we have holes in the skin so there should be no problem there....Famous last words. .... Mr. Long, an A&I, came by an inspected our work on the gear mount and the firewall and found no problem that he could see which made Claude and me relieved & I have to admit a little proud..... Both Claude and I are really tired after a full week seeing Claude get his cataract removed and us working every morning in heat nearing if not exceeding 100 degrees in the hangar. We will take the weekend off and start on the other gear mount Monday. It fits but the same holes have to be drilled in the extension with one being drilled blind. The method we used for the template was discovered on the Van's Airforce forum, a life saver.
