Here are the other cast of characters, mostly assembled (tubes installed and inflated) and in no particular order: main wheels (outside face, inside face showing the disk), nose wheel and in the foreground, the calipers, wheel bearings and finally, the axles with nuts and cotter pins.
The RV-12 wheel bearings are a different beast from conventional bearings and packing them with their preferred grease is done, according to Andy at Matco, "old school." That means a wad of grease in the palm of the hand and work it into the rollers until you're tired of doing it! I chose to use the synthetic Mobil 28 grease.
Packing the bearings...
With that task accomplished, it was time to begin the gear leg assembly work. First up is the installation of the outboard wear and doubler plates. Below is a shot of the wear and doubler plates partially installed.
Here is where the inboard and outboard fittings live - no gear leg yet installed.
And the next two shots show the right gear leg in position and captured by the outboard and inboard fittings.
The requisite groveling on the garage (hangar) floor getting everything into position and readying for final torquing.
Getting the slack out of the outboard fittings with my stubby wrench prior to final torque.
Now the fun: final torquing of the outboard fitting bolts. Note the ingenious use of a stubby wrench, a socket extension, a 3/8 to 1/2 socket adapter and the torque wrench. I wished I had thought of this, but credit goes to the original RV-12 Renaissance Man, none other than Mr. Joe Gores. And you thought he was just an electrical wizard!
This setup of wrenches made the job of getting the desired torque a complete snap. Kudos again to Joe Gores for his clever approach.
Here are a couple of shots of the final positioning of the center section attach points.
And finally, the pictures below illustrate the fruit of our labor - the installed main gear legs!
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