Cleveland wheel's main bearing race replacement

Fabricating a bearing race removal/installation tool 

A few days ago, while replacing the inner tube on N977JT, my friend Nick (Velocity) noticed galling on one of the bearing races of my right wheel (outer half).

Jacking 7JT up the fast and EZ way

Right wheel outer half

Damaged wheel bearing race

When galling occurs the very thin hardened outer surface starts flaking off, and the softer underlying steel is exposed.  Once this process begins it progresses quickly, and destruction of the sliding parts is only a short time away. It’s imperative then that something be done about it quickly, and with this in mind I ordered a new bearing race from Aircraft Spruce (#214-00300).

New race

That was the easy part, the hard part would be figuring out what to use to press the old one out, and the new one in.

In the past, I have used various size sockets as tools to press on the flat surface of various projects' races, but this one is quite large at over 2” (5 cm) inner diameter, and I don’t have any socket that size.

An extensive search uncovered the largest round stock in the shop. At slightly less than 2” it didn’t have quite enough purchase on the bearing race to press it out without damaging itself, or the race, but that’s all I had to work with.

Well, sort of…

You see, that tube was already tied up in another project, having been used during my TIG practice days, and was temporarily unavailable. 

However, I thought I could still borrow some of it, and “press it into service” (pun intended).

Recycling

When biggest is still not big enough

To make the removal side of this tool better fit the race, I decided to increase its outer diameter slightly by welding an oversized rim to it, then put it the lathe and turn it down to proper dimensions and squareness.

TIG welded rim to increase the outer diameter

Machining the rim to the proper size

Not a looker, but good enough for our purposes.

The newly machined tube end worked great, and pressing the race out was easier than I had anticipated.

Awesome fit

Pressing action

"Just like buttah!"

Aluminum wheel and hardened steel bearing race

With half my problem solved, I realized that my tool’s newly enlarged outer diameter was still too small to press the replacement race in without pushing on the tapered inner surfaces. 

This was an obvious NO-NO as it would have damaged the surface of the race all over again.

What I needed was an even bigger outer diameter on what would become the installation end of this tool, and this could be achieved in a couple of different ways... I could build up an even bigger rim with my welder (time consuming and material intensive) then machine it back down... or perhaps I could weld the busted race to the end of my tube, and use that as an installation device. After welding it might have softened enough to be machined on the lathe, squared and slightly undersized.

Checking my options

"I bet this would work!"

Tacked in place

Turning the damaged race turned into a new installation tool

Machined the front flat and the shoulder square on the mini-lathe

Removal/installation tool ready to go

A quick fit check... slightly undersized... Perfect!

With the installation end of the tool completed, it was time to retrieve the new race from the freezer, where it had been for a few days shrinking ever so slightly, and press it in.

Frozen race to aid in installation

New race will be pressed in here

Pressing the race. Clock is ticking.. race is defrosting.

Race bottomed out. Easy peasy.

First look at the race in position

Perhaps a better shot

Looking at the race from inside the wheel

Pressing the race in with my new tool was a breeze.

As time and humidity work their worst to degrade more bearing surfaces, I am confident this tool will come in handy again. 

Clear coated (poorly) and labeled 

For today though, all there’s left to do is putting the wheel back together, mount it on the plane, and go test fly it.

Sounds like an excellent plan to me! 😉

Ch 24 - Covers/Fairings/Consoles

Map pocket

Tired of loosing papers in the cockpit, I finally decided to do something about it. Here's a removable 3D printed ABS map pocket (version #1)...

As it printed, supports and all.

Biggest issue was removing all the supporting structure

Quite some time later

A few of the items I regularly carry loose in the cockpit

The holes are there mostly to help me remove the internal support.

A view from the inside of the sidewall

With a 6" depth, the checklist sticks out just enough to be easy to grab, yet not interfere with my forearm.

I suppose if I had had a manual speed brake this pocket might not have fit

The map pocket weighs in at only 43 grams

What used to be wasted space, is now a much appreciated new feature.

The money shot

After flying with it for the past five hours, I have to say "I love it!", and I wish I had done it sooner.

Not having to fart around looking for a lost piece of paper when you need it the most has already reduced one source of stress in the cockpit, and my checklist is now always in the same place, a quick motion away from getting deployed.

The cockpit is now neater and better organized, and to date I have not yet identified a single drawback to this mod. I would highly recommend it to any Long EZ owner.

Version #2 has already been printed. This fixes some minor bugs and makes the structure slightly more robust by introducing a few fillets here and there. Having said that, I am still flying with v1 for the time being. The hot swap will take place soon.

360º video

My latest cockpit videos didn’t offer much to those of you that are not into IFR flying, and they actually required you, the viewer, to make and sustain an effort to understand what was going on with the outside world while small needles in the cockpit moved about. 

My apologies.

For the longest time I wanted to be able to show an external view of the world using an additional camera, and after a few months of research and indecision, I finally settled on one… the Insta360 ONE.

This is not a review of the Insta360 ONE, there are plenty of them on YouTube already, but I wanted to show you what it’s capable of by sharing the first video I made with it (yes, it still takes me one hour of editing for every minute of video produced).

I hope you enjoy it, and don’t get motion sickness…

Ch 22 - Electrical/Avionics - Part 15

George is flying!

I finally got a chance to go out and test fly the servo installation by shooting an actual autopilot coupled RNAV approach, and the results were just amazing.

Check it out…

Letting "George" do some work at last!

I am tempted to say my work here is done, but I know better than that. 

I am however looking forward to more flying and less modifying from now on, and perhaps even getting back to my long term Long EZ project… remember that?! 😉

Ch 22 - Electrical/Avionics - Part 14

Pitch servo flight test

The one year long upgrade process had come to the end, and it is time to see if this conversion has been a good idea, or a waste of time and money. 

As you might imagine, I couldn’t wait to go flying to check out the fully functional autopilot.

Would it work well?

Would it work at all?

The wait was killing me! Meanwhile 7JT sat quietly in the hangar, perhaps still a little sore from the latest cyborg implant.

Luckily, I wouldn’t have to wait long for a couple of sunny days on which to fly. 

I actually conducted four flights over two days, and aside from a couple of control reversal issues (fun fun) due to software settings I was positive I had changed, the installation only required a little more torque output from the servo (another software setting) before 7JT started to perform the way I knew she was capable of.

“Fanfreakingtastic!”

Unfortunately, due to reasons unrelated to the servo installation, and that were since resolved, I had to fly these flights in heading mode, and I didn’t get to shoot any approaches. I’ll try doing that over the next few flights, however I wanted to show you a few pictures of the pitch servo in action during a couple of descents, one in IAS (Indicated Airspeed) mode, the other in VS (Vertical Speed) mode.

First though, let me show you the only climb shot I’ve got in which the sun didn’t fade the whole scene out… 

Constant 120kts airspeed climb to 6500'

After climbing to 6500’, I made a few turns. Here’s one to the left…

Level turn to a southerly heading

After flying a 15 minutes closed loop in heading mode, I found myself on the way back home, needing to descend. I broke up the descent in multiple sections in order to get a little more practice, and highlight any possible issues.

For the first descent, I selected 5500’ and chose a constant speed of 160kts. The Flight Director immediately commanded a dive, but the autopilot was very smooth in lowering the nose to follow it.

Process of beginning a descent in constant speed mode

As the airspeed reached the selected 160kts, the Flight Director rose to maintain the speed, and the autopilot smoothly followed its command.

Constant speed descent established

Roughly 100’ prior to reaching the selected 5500’, the vertical autopilot went into “Altitude Capture” mode, during which the nose is raised to level the plane off. At this point I added enough power to maintain my normal cruising speed.

Starting the leveling maneuver

The autopilot then went into “Altitude Hold” mode. The airspeed decayed to whatever the power setting I used would support, and the autopilot pitched to maintain altitude.

New altitude reached and level off completed

The next descent to 3500’ was started in IAS mode at 180kts, but then I switched to VS mode at -500 fpm (feet per minute) due to turbulence, and also to check that mode.

New descent to 3500' selected, with constant airspeed of 180kts.

Too bumpy for 180kts, I switched to a constant Vertical Speed descent at -500fpm

Vertical Speed descent fully established

Once again the autopilot went into “Altitude Capture” first, then the “Altitude Hold”.

Should start to look familiar by now

"That's right... you've got this now!"

What else can I say… I am beyond ecstatic. 

As awesome as 7JT has always been, she has now become the airplane of my dreams. Long trips will now be less stressful, and more fun, and I’ll be able to spend more time looking outside, both for traffic and to enjoy the view. 

Should the occasional cloud get in the way, 7JT is now capable of just about any approach one can think of, precision and non, and do it all by itself, including Missed Approaches and Holdings. 

All it’s required of me now is to stay awake, and enjoy the ride.

I can hardly imagine money and time better spent.