Bent gear legs

As you probably know I am converting an RV-8A kit to a more standard 8 configuration. Of course these days, seems Van’s is going more for the nose dragger look…maybe that’s becoming more standard?

I digress…

I had to buy my own mains and looking at my budget had to decide where to spend $ for those little extras.  Landing gear was not on that list.  For what I’d spend on fancier Aluminum (and admittedly lighter, cooler looking and more straightforward) I could get standard steel legs, fairings and enough left over for a Todd’s Canopy, get my seats covered locally.

Thanks to Vern Darly for alerting me, one day someone put up a set of brand new gear legs (still in the wrapper from Vans), hardware and the fairings.  I got the whole shootin’ match for I think about $300 plus shipping.  ‘Nough said about costs savings.

However as I am in the gear install phase, I finally opened them up, laid them out only to notice they didn’t match.  Something was wrong.

The ears on each end were bent out with the end that attaches to the fuse out by about 3/8′ (see image below):

I was a little concerned as Van’s has a policy that they will not replace or swap parts if you are a second hand purchaser, even for new parts.  I was concerned about how to best go about fixing this.  Without adjustment the right gear (bent gear leg) would cause the right side of the aircraft to be lower and not set level.

However as I talked to another RV builder (Smokey Ray) about it I happened to mention that there was also a bow in the main section  of that leg (between the two ears) and the light came on:  All I needed to do was get that section straightened by taking out that slight bow and the ends should be back in the correct angle.  I’m off today to get that done or find a shop locally to do it.

Here is a shot showing the bow.  I know it’s kind of hard to see, but you get the idea:

My question is: How’d these get out of the door like this?  QC? Oh well, at least it’s fixable.

RV8A to RV8 Conversion – Adding the tailwheel

Installing a tailwheel assembly into a basically finished RV-8A tail was one of the unknowns.

It looked to be fairly simple, but as I tried to wiggle the tailwheel weldment (WD409) into place without removing anything significant  that proved impossible.

Then I tried simply to start the cutout for the tube, hoping it would free up enough room for rear part for the weldment to poke through the skin and allow the piece to settle into position.  No joy there either.

Finally the last resort choice was to drill out the skin, and lift it up, clam-shell style,  enough so that the weldment would pop into place, which it did. (see below)

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Here is a rear view placing and preparing to drill.

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WD-409 painted and the AN4 bolts torqued.  The original primer got fairly scuffed in during the surgery but I’ll buff out and repaint everything before re-assembly.

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Notice reference marks made with Sharpie before I removed the skin to help in repositioning the  skin correctly.  The reason is that the bulkheads are a little flexible and will shift as the skin is re-positioned so using the the rivet holes alone as a reference isn’t good.

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Tomorrow I’ll get it zipped up (i.e. riveted) and start on the main gear install.  Sah-weeeet!

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