Landing gear bolts

[N111YX]

Yes, exactly that, Brock. From the front - there is the head of the bolt, the gear leg, a few washers to fill the gap from the leg to the firewall, the firewall itself, then a washer, and finally a castle nut with a cotter pin. It's worked for me after 1500+ landings and minimal carbon monoxide readings in the cabin.

Bryan, my gear bolts go in pointing aft, washers make up the distance to the firewall, and the castle nuts are on the cabin side of the firewall. It works well. The torque on the nut is minimal so there is no need to go so tight as to crinkle the firewall. There seems to be a good seal from the washers.

Kip, Do I understand you correctly? You are using castle nuts and a cotter pin on the cabin side - right? I like that. These bolts are loaded strictly in sheer and don't really need to be tight (correct me if I'm wrong). Thus a castle nut could be put on just tight enough that the, un-held, bolt doesn't rotate. Then just install a cotter pin.

[fjdoug]

When I was looking at it this morning, it seems like the landing gear bolt is pretty much perpendicular to the firewall. That got me thinking - instead of an access hole, I could just drill a hole for the bolt using the mount as a guide, and then put a spacer between the mount and the firewall. The spacer would be a touch thicker than the bolt head.

Any thoughts?[/quote]

That is exactly what i did and i think many were doing at the time.