Front Gear Assembly - Part 4

This step was delayed until after I had the main gear installed and the airframe was ready to sit on it's main gear for the first time.

Prepping the wheel by liberally applying baby powder to the inside of the tire to help the tube expand without pinching is an exercise in patience.

With the tube, tire and wheel assembled you partially inflate the tube and then deflate it by removing the Schrader valve to deflate the tube, then re-insert the valve and refill.

I repeated this process a few times until was confident the tube wasn't pinching on the rim.

I used dish-washing soap around the rim of the tire and slowing inflated until the tire rim was evenly spread around the rim.

 This took several attempts but is a necessary step to get the tire to seat properly on the rim.

Tip:

Keep your fingers clear of the tire and the rim when inflating because the tire will rapidly pop into place and pinch your fingers and not let go. You have been warned...

With the tire assembly complete I could install it into the fork assembly.

I found that both spaces would not fit between the fork and it was off by 1/8"

 I measured the front wheel spacers to make sure I had the spacers on the right side of the wheel.

52.14mm
42.15mm

I ended up using a piece of wood as leverage that would not mar the wheel or the powder coating on the fork.

This was based on feedback from other builders that had suggested this approach.

Others shortened the spacer to avoid bending the fork, I think either approach will work.

Another shot of the nose wheel fully assembled

Front Gear Assembly - Part 3

 Time to mount the engine mount to the firewall.

My kit includes the parachute cables embedded in the canopy so have additional brackets that need to be installed on the back of the firewall engine mount.

I ended up prepping and painting the parachute tangs black because I cannot stop myself from little tasks that no one will appreciate or even see but me.

 

Most builders that also installed the parachute system have encountered that the bolts for this part are too short and need to be replaced.

I ended up using the longer AN5-7a bolts on the doubler shown in detail A and ordering longer bolts for detail C.

I ordered a pair of AN5-10, AN5-11 and AN5-12 bolts but I don't remember which ones I actually used but I had what I needed.

The lower bolts were installed which were AN5-7A, the torqued everything to spec and marked.

Builders Notes:

Some builders have opted to reverse the bolts so the nylocks are on the engine side of the firewall.

The idea being that they are much easier to visually inspect as opposed to climbing inside the cable and using a mirror to inspect.

I think if I were to do it again I would use a compression nut that does not have a nylon insert which are rated to be in the engine compartment.

Front Gear Assembly - Part 2

Continuing with the assembly of the engine mount and the steerable nose gear.

With everything sanded and moving freely I applied white lithium grease to the nose strut and began final assembly of the lower strut bushings.

This part is sort of interesting because of the multiple thrust bearings that are used with overlapping thrust bearing washers and the comically large spring.

 

I moved on to the upper bushing and completed the final installation of the bushing retaining brackets and torqued to spec.

Next the bumper stop is installed with and end cap which dampens any slap when the spring compression is released.

The engine is installed which is compressing the spring causing the space that you see in the photo.