S-7 GEAR SOCKET BOLT HOLE REINFORCEMENT

 

2012/01/10

 

Owners who operate on wheels have found that the ¼” hole  for the bolt that retains the gear leg in the socket will enlarge due to torque on the gear leg. Current kits have additional plates welded on to the sockets to provide thicker material to help resist this wear.

 

Because welding on a completed airframe is not something everyone wants to tackle, there have been other solutions in the form of bolt on shells. This is another, simple way of doing it.

 

This is a chunk of 1 5/8 OD steel pipe with a 1 3/8 ID that nicely fits over the gear socket:

 

Mark off two, 2” lengths then drill a ¼” hole through each length in the center. Cut through, from both sides but only 95% on each 2” length leaving two small bits of the circumference to hold everything together. To ensure you keep matching halves together put in cuts or punch marks to allow you to identify each side of both 2” lengths. Next mark two lines along a plane perpendicular to the holes and cut each 2” length in half.   The additional length on the pipe makes a handle for pushing it into the band saw.

 

Clean up, paint, then coat inside with JB Weld and install. Just rough up the paint on the socket where the shells will sit and tighten the gear leg bolt. The two gear clamps add additional tension while the JB Weld hardens.    Here is the right side:

 

 

And the left:

 

 

 

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