Brief Description: Set Nose Wheel Breakout Force; Install Cotter Pin
The next step was to loosely install the new fork onto the gear leg. I then wrapped some safety wire around the axel bolt and nut in order to measure and set the breakout force. The large fork nut was initially tightened until 14 ft-lbs registered on the little spring fish scale on each side. Then I progressively rotated the fork from stop to stop several times with each iteration and gradually tightened the fork nut until 22 ft-lbs registered on each side as the breakout force.
The final step was the most difficult and that was drilling an 1/8" hole in the hardened steel gear leg for the cotter pin. I used lots of Boelube and started with a 1/16" bit, followed by 5/64", 3/32", and finally 1/8" bits. It took a while and I drilled from each side rather than attempting to drill straight through and potentially miss the slot on the castle nut on the other side. I didn't bother to remove the large fork nut to dress up the threads on the leg but I know the first time I go to remove the fork I'll have a difficult time getting the nut off and will need to fix the threads before putting it back on. Hopefully I'll never have to remove the nose fork again. Anyway, once the gear leg was drilled I inserted the cotter pin and bent the ends up and down.
The AN5-60 axle bolt through the wheel isn't torqued yet since I need a couple of special washers that only Vans sells and they are currently out of stock. Once I get the washers I can finish up the service bulletin and let the nose down by releasing the tail.
New nose fork loosely installed on gear leg; Safety wire wrapped around axel bolt to set breakout
Fork nut tightened until 22 ft-lbs of breakout force appears on each side using a fish spring scale
