More Main Gear Work (4 h)

Started the day with trimming off 20mm from each end of the main gear supports. The metal grinder is a fearsome beast and this took me a lot longer than someone would have done who was less afraid of losing a limb. That thing is mean.

I deburred the holes and enlarged each one a tiny bit with a file so that they would fit more easily on the gear fitting.

After that I had another go with the main gear rubber supports. Using a vice, a hacksaw and a grinder in the Dremmel I was able to make one sufficient set of notches.

This stuff is tough, I am beginning to think they should have made the plane out of this, nothing can cut it. I did have a go with the metal grinder and it was doing ok but it was making the rubber melt so I decided to look for a different solution. Asking around, it seems that a belt sander or band saw are the best, so maybe I am not far off with the metal grinder. I did make decent progress on one more but there are still two more after that to do.

The last thing to do is mount the wheel assemblies to the main gear. First you have to get the axle out and bolt it to the gear legs. Without the video I doubt I would ever have worked out how to get it apart (with any confidence of putting it back together). To get the rims apart you have to undo this massive castle nut.

And remove three screws. This leaves you with the axle and brake assembly to take apart.

There are four screws that will release the brakes from the axle. I took them all the way out which caused me hassle putting it back together, with the next wheel I may see if I can release the axle without going that far.

Once the axle was out I bolted it to the gear leg.

Getting the brake assembly back on was tough! I am sure this was largely because I’d never seen this kind of thing let alone have any experience in how to handle it. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the brakes back into the right places so I could put the screws back in. Just as I was about to give up all four holes became magically aligned and I got the screws in real quick. Even with everything lined up it is a fiddly job getting the Allen key and the nuts in places.

I do think I learned some clues from this one and the next should be easier. And in the end it wasn’t that hard, just puzzling. Having the second one to look at for reference was a real blessing.

From here, my main challenges are notching those rubber supports and, still, getting the tyres on the rims. The big problem here is getting the o-ring over one of the rims long enough to be able to put them in the tyre and join them together. As you can see from this picture, the ring isn’t big enough to slip over the edge and so far two of us haven’t been able to tease it over. I am sure there is a technique to this (the video shows him stretching it over the outside of the rim – no way we can do that with ours).

All three rims are ready for their tyres now.

In one final piece of news, my replacement compressor came today.

Before anyone says anything about this picture I haven’t finished installing all the pieces yet. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of compressing left to do on the project but I am told by many that every man needs a compressor. So there you go, I am set.