Tight Gear Leg

[racaldwell]

I'm guessing there may be somebody in the future that is going to run into the impossible to insert titanium gear leg like I did. It took some hours but here is how I solved it.

The gear leg measured 0.001" larger diameter then the socket on the mount after the paint was removed. It would not fit even if hammered. I used 1" dia. 80 grit flap wheel on my die grinder to work both the top and bottom sockets in the engine mount. Then smoothed with a 120 grit flap wheel. I had a 2" dia. flap wheel that I used to polish the titanium rod. After some hours sand/fit/sand/fit, I was able to get the leg to move in the lower socket, with lube of course. Light blows with the mallet I got it up to the top socket. Then I ran into another problem. Here is a picture of the leg off center and hitting the edge of the socket. It was not going any further.

With a file, I chamfered the top of the leg about 1/8" and smoothed with a flap wheel. I sanded the sockets some more until I could push and twist the leg into position in the mount by hand. When it hit the top socket, I used a mallet to get it into the socket and I could drive it the rest of the way with the mallet.

The other leg was not nearly so onerous. I did the same polishing/chamfering to it and was able to get it all the way in by hand.

Now on to alignment and drilling.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057

[Spaceman]

I had the same issue. I spent a lot of time sanding the inside of the tubes with a honing gadget I had, wrapped in sandpaper, and then I had to beat the crap out of the legs to finally get them all the way through. It was definitely a project!!