Brief Description: Bolt Nose Wheel to Fork; Bolt Fork to Nose Gear
Today I cleaned and greased the nose wheel races for the wheel bearings. I used Aeroshell #22 grease on all of the wheel bearings for the mains and the nose wheel. Once the nose wheel bearings and races were all greased up I popped the bearings into the wheel, slid the U-623 axle adapters in place and worked the wheel into the fork. I then inserted the AN6-60A axle bolt and used an all metal lock nut with a couple of extra washers to secure everything. I needed extra washers since I'm not installing the U-813C wheel pant brackets on the nose wheel either.The next thing I did was install the 3/8" Allen head screws in the top of the fork. These will serve as the nose wheel stops that the WD-631 will bump against. I also installed the MS15001-1 grease fitting on the front of the fork. This will be used to lube the fork as it rotates about the nose gear leg. I used loctite on the threads of all screws.Once the wheel was in the fork, I spent some time cleaning up the inside of the WD-631 as well as the bare metal on the end of the nose gear leg. I reamed the WD-631 to 0.311 and then bolted it to the leg. I greased up the end of the leg and then installed the fork with the necessary washers and nut at the bottom. I had to buy and 1-1/2" socket to tighten the nut. The plans indicate that this nut has to be tight enough to resist a 22 lb pull from either side using a spring fish scale. I won't set this breakout force until I have the nose gear on the engine mount, mostly because I'm not sure how else to anchor the gear leg while I'm doing this.The final thing I did today was replace all remaining nylon lock nuts on any of the gear components with all metal stop nuts. Once this was done I used blue torque seal on all the nuts for easy inspection down the road.
Nose wheel bolted to fork
Fork bolted to nose gear; stops and grease fittings installed