Today I worked for several hours install the left landing gear leg. The right leg installed with little trouble at all. The leg seated in the socket and the hole drilled by the factory tech lined up exactly as it should have.
The left leg was not so trouble-free. The leg would not seat more than 2/3rds the way into the socket. I de-burred the drilled holes. checked the end of the leg for burrs etc. I removed a small amount of adhesive and fabric from the opening of the socket. The adhesive and fabric were a result of the covering process. The leg would still would not go in the last inch or so. After considerable time cleaning the socket, checking for burrs, rough edges, debris etc I gave in to temptation and went next door to get my machinist/engineer neighbor.
Keith came over and checked the gear socket and immediately identified a problem with the very top end. The factory tech had chamfered the top edge, but there was a minute ridge below the chamfer that was binding in the socket. The gear legs are heat-treated and very sensitive to any heat from grinding, sanding etc. Keith was able to hone the top edge of the gear leg to remove the ridge. This took about an hour of slow hand-work. Keith also found several burrs and imperfections inside the socket, and was able to clean those out with a fine half-round file. The end result was that the gear leg fitted quite snuggly into the socket. Seating the leg was still quite a chore, but the leg could be twisted enough to align the pre-drilled hole.
Keith is designing a reinforcing collar or shaped washer to reduce the known problem with the bolt-hole wearing and allowing the gear leg to rotate causing alignment problems with the tires. More on that later.
