REFLECTOR: RG Questions

[davedent at comcast.net]

John if your bolt is bent there is a good chance that the fiber lock nut has lost its torque.  Check this to be sure.  Also if you have the fiber nut that Velocity issued double check this as well.  The bolt is a grade eight but the nut is not.  Also if you install the bolt the way the plans tell you with it being front to back with the nut in the engine compartment change it out.  There should be no fiber lock nuts in the engine compartment. This is wrong.  I have lost four right hand gears because of looseness of that nut before I realized what had happen and what was going on.  

Before the first three I had to cut the bolts out because of so much bending of the bolts.  So I didn't realize that the nut was loosening up.  The last time there wasn't that much damage so I just checked to see if the bolt was bent and if I was going to have a big problem in getting the gear out.  When I went to check with the plane on jacks I found the gear real loose in the mount and the bolt just spun.  So I took the cowl off and found the nut was about to fall off.  I was able to just spin it off.  The fiber portion had melted and became useless.  The right hand gear nut is just four inches from my exhaust on that side.  That's why I never had problems with the left gear.  It's close to 12 inches from the exhaust.  DAAAAA/ I should have thought of this a long time ago.  I couldn't believe I was the only one having this problem.  
 
So now I have the bolts facing forward with drilled grade eight bolts and castle nuts.  When you don't have bearing in a pivot point then you must use drilled bolts with cotter pins.  Because the first thing that will turn when the bolt is bent is the nut coming off.  I should have thought of all this but I am one of the guys that always says the plans are correct.  Boy I'm I wrong on this one.  I lost three gears before realizing the problem.  Don't let it happen to you. Check it and if you can get the fiber lock nuts out of the system and out of the engine compartment. 
Dave



 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: John Dibble <aminetech at bluefrog.com>
> I finished installing the ADC oil filter in the nose.  Figured I had
> plenty of clearance, but did a retract test anyway.  It was closer than
> I thought, but still OK.  While I had the plane jacked up I checked the
> main gear.  There was more play than what I thought it should be,
> especially the co-pilot side.  I loosened the nut on the pivot bolts and
> it took little wrench pressure to loosen.  How tight should they be?
> Then I put a wrench on the bolt to turn it to check for bending.  It
> turned easy in the spot it was in, but difficult to turn 180*.  The
> bolts had 6 marks on them and my hardware store tells me that is grade
> 8.  Is that correct?
> Anyway, with the bolts turned 180*, all the play is gone.  I did another
> retract and dump valve extension and everything worked fine.  I'm
> thinking I will try it like this for a while.  Any comments?
> 
> John
> 
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