Brief Description: Modified Nose Wheel Bearing Block
The way this is designed you're supposed to tap four 1/4-28 holes in the block and then use bolts that have holes in the head and they get safety wired. I don't like this design and neither do a lot of other builders as many have changed the installation. First, fine threads (as in 28) should never be tapped into soft material, not even aluminum, at a minimum they should be coarse threads (as in 20), but that still leaves you with a bolt in soft material. The way I did mine the head of the bolt is going to be buried inside the bearing block and I'll be able to torque them and use lock nuts instead of safety wire. My way is not unique. Here's the link to the Zenith Forum Discussion that describes the mod.
So I drilled all four holes with the bearing and nosewheel installed but I ran the drill all the way through. Better to do this on the drill press though.
I then removed everything from the plane and in the drill press I countersunk each hole from the top of the bearing, using a 5/8" Forstener bit. I then mixed some JB Weld, coated the shank of the bolts and under the head and pressed them into the bearing block and then filled the rest of the hole with JB Weld...I'll clean them up tomorrow.
The downside of my installation is the bracket that the bearing block sits on will first have to be installed to the bearing block and only then onto the airplane. Not that big of a deal.
