Now that the nose gear is back together I decided to tweak the main gear just a bit. I purchased Avery's jack stand kit, which uses a new set of hollow axle nuts. A steel rod is inserted through the center of the axle nuts into the hollow main gear rods in order to jack up the plane. The steel rod is long enough that the wheel can then be slid off the axle and onto the rod along with the axle nuts once they are loosened. The gear leg can then be set on some blocks and the jack released and the wheel then slid off the steel rod. Anyway, I started by deburring and assembling Van's 1-1/2" home made axle wrench kit. I then pulled out the new axle nuts and riveted nutplates onto the steel cover straps that will be used to secure the wheel pants.
Van's home made 1-1/2" axle nut wrench
Van's home made 1-1/2" axle nut wrench
Avery's new main gear axle nuts - nutplates installed on cover straps
