What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Nose wheel shows lateral play in the upper mount

timotb

Member
Hello

My leg attach bolt (AN5-20A) on my 7a nose gear is loose in the mounting socket. See DWG 46a. It Shows AN5-20a bolt is used.* If I raise the nose just high enough to clear the floor there is lateral movement in the socket as measured by a notch on the floor showing tire movement of 1/2"*left and right.*

The fix I'm thinking is to replace the AN5 with a slightly larger bolt, drill, and ream the hole to size slightly smaller than the bolt which would require a pressed fitting and would yield an extremely tight fit. The machining skill here is over my head.

Anyone have this problem and how did you fix yours?

Tim Boger
N12ZP
 
Bolt

Before you start drilling and reaming find an NAS equivalent to the An bolt. It should be slightly larger than the AN and might be enough.
Also would be good to go one dash number longer that called for. Some bolts taper significantly at the base of the threads because of manufacturing process.
 
Nose landing gear

To prevent this from happening I incorporated the following.

1. Installed U-603-3 nose landing gear into engine mount, reamed the hole with a No: 3 taper reamer from the bottom until the taper pin fitted correctly plus had clearance to the firewall.

2. Installed the AN386-4-13 taper pin, AN975-5 taper pin washer (i.e. after reworking it to fit evenly against engine mount) and retained it with an AN320-5 nut. Torqued nut and fitted MS24665-132 Split pin.

Quite simple to do and no problem with landing gear moving in the engine mount.

Cheers.
 
To prevent this from happening I incorporated the following.

1. Installed U-603-3 nose landing gear into engine mount, reamed the hole with a No: 3 taper reamer from the bottom until the taper pin fitted correctly plus had clearance to the firewall.

2. Installed the AN386-4-13 taper pin, AN975-5 taper pin washer (i.e. after reworking it to fit evenly against engine mount) and retained it with an AN320-5 nut. Torqued nut and fitted MS24665-132 Split pin.

Quite simple to do and no problem with landing gear moving in the engine mount.

Cheers.


Somethings off here. The AN386-4-13 is way too big for a #3 taper reamer by eye.
 
Have you grounded the plane for this? At a minimum I would replace the existing bolt right now, but it would be a really good idea to correct this before further flight.
 
For your clarification this is the #3 taper reamer that I used to install the taper pin. It worked very nicely. View the photo below.

https://flic.kr/p/2mLJ9Le

Cheers,

Im baffled. I have what appears to be a #3 reamer (not sure what a #3 specs out), but it is obviously too small for an386-4-13 taper pin which has a 0.357 - 0.428 diameter and a 1° taper. Might have to consider other methods such as recommended earlier by trying the NAS equivalent to the An-5-20a.
 
No: 3 Reamer

Hi Tim,

The Brown and Sharpe No 3 reamer I have used has the following dimensions:-

Small end diameter = 0.3099 inches
Large end diameter = 0.4510 inches

You may want to compare the above dimensions to the No 3 reamer you have for comparison.

Click on the link below, or copy into your Google search engine, and it will take you to the Aircraft Tool Supply page for this reamer. ATS are selling it for $36 which is a very good price. But also look at other suppliers to compare prices.

https://aircraft-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?id=BSR-3&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

I hope the above information is helpful. This reamer did a very good job when I installed the taper pin in my aircraft.

Cheers,
 
Back
Top