REFLECTOR: Nose gear (FG)

[nmflyer1 at aol.com]

Well, the Nose gear is back in, & seems to be satisfactory. A few notes for those wishing to change out the nose gear bumper. This starts after removing the old stuff:

1,  There needed to be a "shim pad" made for my application. I did this. It levels the area where the layups from the Keel 
      to the Canard Bulkhead are. The new bumper is taller than those layups. 

          I made a template of the back of the bumper (steel side) on clear plexiglass. The holes I drilled just big enough to get a 
          marker through them to mark the new holes. I drew a centerline on the clear template to line up with the existing
          centerline that was drawn on the canard bulkhead previously. 

          I transferred the template outline/holes to the Canard bulkhead with marker. Then drilled the new holes for the new 
          bumper. 

          I then duct taped the steel side of the bumper and marked where the "shim" needed to be. I placed epoxy/flox
          on the area to be filled (bumper side) and bolted the new bumper in place to let the shim cure (tight enough to make
          a good pad, but not so tight as to bend the steel). 

2,    In my case, there also needed to be a spacer made between the canard bulkhead/shim pad and the bumper. This
       is so that the original placement of the captivator plate would work. 

          I made a spacer out of 1/4" aluminum with the holes drilled. Then I bolted it into place. My bolt length was critical
          due to other things in the nose (front side of the bulkhead).  It would be advantageous to put the bolts in from the
          aft side. That way you have the most room possible near the rubber for installation/compaction. 

          I had to make the hole in the fuselage a little bigger in the aft direction. This is because I had to tilt the nose gear
          well aft in order to get the upper bolt in place (thanks Kevin!).


          I then put the nose fork back on and spun it around so that it was backward (most leverage possible on the nose).

          I put 120 lbs on the nose, then I used my super-strong nose tiedown point & a ratchet tiedown to pull the nose 
          gear even farther forward into the rubber. 

          Then I reinstalled the captivator plate & turned everything loose. 

Using previous reflector posts on how to do this helped a lot. My only big problems were that I considered the "shim" which folks mentioned, a piece to level the area where the bumper rests. My case also required a spacer!  They are 2 different things. 

The other part was that I had to enlarge the fuselage hole as explained above, but also had to turn the upper bolt around. 
When you tilt the nose gear aft so that you can line it up with the upper keel holes, the very top of the gear hits the upper bumper mounting bolt (unless you install that bolt from the aft side). It is only about 1/4" difference... but enough so that I could not get it to work any other way. 


Hope this helps. 

Kurt 



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