Decided to take a break from fiberglass. Started on the landing gear. The first steps have you attach the engine mount. I will do it later.
Started to mount the nosewheel tire. I separated the wheels halves. Then observed that there was a shoulder washer, nut, another nut and the stem cap on the tube. None of these are shown in the plans. Looked at the MATCO manual that came with the main wheels and brakes and it showed these valve stem components. BUT, the nut passed thru the valve stem hole in the nosewheel. Something amiss? Called MATCO tech support and they supplied a drawing for the nosewheel.
Click here for the MATCO nosewheel drawing.
The shoulder washer goes inside the wheel half and the nut really is NOT captured by the hole, but just sits in the valve stem hole. This is a different arrangement than the one shown in the MATCO manual for the main wheels. Used talc to dust the inside of the tire and the tube and reassembled it.
Then started on the first of the main wheels. To install the tube and the tire, the entire wheel has to be disassembled. The brake housing, the brake disk, the wheel halves, and the bearings have to be removed. The wheel hub has to be removed from the inner wheel half. This was very difficult but was finally able to wiggle it free. To install the tube, you have to pass the valve stem through the inner wheel half hole and then install the shoulder washer and its nut. Then you can pass the tube stem thru the slot in the inner wheel half. Next I, inserted the tube/wheel half in the tire and brought the wheel halves together being careful not to pinch the tube. Going to be a pain to fix a flat!!
Specs for torquing the capscrews and the nuts are in the MATCO manual.
The bearings came with a light coating of oil. Will get some grease and pack the bearings the next day. The MATCO manual suggests a few grease types and MATCO technical support indicated Mobil SHC 100 was acceptable.
BTW, in reading the MATCO manual, noticed automotive brake fluid is NOT compatible with the brakes supplied with the RV-12. Take note.
Time Today - 4 hours
