Main landing gear shim

TLDR

• Made a shim to fill landing gear gap (left side)

Detail

My landing gear has a 1.0mm gap on the left side, so I need to make a shim to fill the gap before torquing down the landing gear.

Step1: made a shape template

I placed a card board inside the cockpit on the other side of the landing gear bolt insert. Then I traced the shape of the shim I needed to make.

To locate the hole for the bolt, I put some torquing seal on the 2 M10 bolts, and then pressed the card board on the bolt. It left a trace of the bolt print, and I cut the 10mm holes on the painted location.

I then test fitted the card board template, it seemed to work.

Step 2: made the shim

I ordered 1.0mm steel stock from McMaster.

I first did an rough cut to get the general shape, then used my bench grinder to trim the excessive parts to match the card board template.

Lastly, I drilled the 10.0 mm holes and deburred them. It’s significantly harder to work with steel than aluminum. If someone is doing the same, a cobalt drill bit is pretty much required.

Step 3: Test fit the shim

I then put the shim on the airplane to make sure the bolt go indeed go through the holes without interference.

To test fit the part, I had to fully remove the landing gear to get enough access. And I needed to trim the top of the shim a little bit more to clear a rivet.

After that, I put a tiny bit of pro-seal on the shim to make it stick to the channel so it doesn’t move when I mount the landing gear.

Step 4: Final mounting

After the shim is in place, I remounted the landing gear.

• Use foam to lift the gear to roughly align with the bolt holes.
• Top right bolt first,
• Then bottom right bolt,
• Then top left bolt,
• Lastly bottom left bolt.

It took some time to get all four bolts in. Slight hammer persuasion was required on the right side. Here is the final result: