Gear Alignment

[cgruby]

I probably already know the answer to this question, but I thought I'd run it some of you and get a consensus. What would you do about a type III bungee gear that's seriously out of alignment in toe in/out?

[Kitfox Guy]

Buy a Grove Gear

[Dusty]

Try a length of water pipe over the axle and apply an appropriate force.
If the gear is way out go grove for simplicity,for weight saving and the "classic" look, the cabane gear is my choice.

[HighWing]

Chuck,
The gear alignment issue first surfaced when I was building my first Model IV in the mid 90s. The factory recommended fix was to anchor the tail to the hangar floor and do as suggested - pipe over the axle and pull. I actually used some copper pipe over the axle then steel over that to protect the threads. The reason for the tail to be affixed to the floor is to simplify the checks as the tweaking is progressing. The recommended angle measurement method was to put a square on the axle and sight down the long end.

I did this then and was interested to find that the gear leg weldment is really ridged. what bent for me was the axle and it was the factory axle undrilled. The bent axle resulted in a misalignment with the brake caliper mounting plate. (I often wonder if this misalignment is partially responsible for the poor braking stories we hear - the pads not mating properly with the disk.) I compensated for misalignment by strategically placing washers under the caliper and checking alignment with the square. If you prefer to bend the gear leg rather than the axle, you will need some heat on the leg tubing.

Regarding the Grove gear. It is heavy. The 24 + lbs. mentioned on their online catalog page is for the bare bones gear leg. Curiosity once prompted me to call them and get a total weight with all mounting hardware, etc. That adds almost ten pounds with the axles, hardware and mounting brackets. I have a - per the manual - faired gear leg from a Model IV and it weighs 4 lbs. 9 oz. without the axle. The axles add another pound per side for a total of 11 lbs. 4 oz. vs. something like 35 lbs. for the grove. Actually to be strictly fair, you will add an ounce for the mounting bolts plus half a pound for the weight of the bungees - I just weighed 64" of bungee cord. Another consideration is that the grove gear is shorter than the bungee gear so it will affect angle of attack if you are trying to minimize takeoff roll and - in the eye of this beholder, the squat look with the grove gear takes away from the classic look of the early Kitfoxes. You can probably guess my recommendation.
Lowell

[avidflyer]

I just adjusted toe in on a Kitfox 1 a couple of weeks ago. Used a 8' or so long pipe, that I pulled back towards the tail with a cable come a long. Pulled, put the wheel back on,, measured, pulled again, remount wheel, remeasure, and I think the third time I was right on. I put a piece of tape on each wheel, made a mark on the tape, measured to mark on tape on both wheels with tape in front, rolled wheels back 180 degrees and measured to the marks again. Jim Chuk

[cgruby]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's pretty much what I figured would be the response.