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Builders,
My wife says I am often the last person in the
world to figure out what everyone else
knows and takes for granted, but I made a "discovery" this weekend that is
probably well known to all but me? Just in case it isn't, here's the
scoop.
I attempted to remove the machined aluminum axle
mounting brackets from the lower gear legs of my LIV-P to replace the nylaflow
with braided stainless-covered tubing. Mine is a 1999 era kit, but has never
been parked outside/in the rain as far as I know. Even so, I had
to tap out the two 1/4" retaining bolts with a hammer because corrosion had
built up around the areas where the aluminum axle mount joined the steel gear
leg--my first clue that there might be a problem, and not visible at all
from an outside inspection. The aluminum mount was well corroded to the gear
leg, but I was able to free it by applying penetrating oil and a heat gun, and
using a piece of plastic pipe over the axle to rotate and loosen the mount on
the gear leg.
When I got it off, I found that water had penetrated
between the steel gear leg and the aluminum axle mount, and set up some serious
corrosion between these parts. This is a natural path for water to run down the
gear leg in the rain, or during washing. Further, there is no way for
any water to drain out of this area. To correct this, I drilled a "weep
hole" on the inside face of the axle mount about an inch above the existing
brake line fitting. I determined-the actual location by measuring the depth of
the interior clearance hole for the brake line fitting and transferring
this measurement to the outside of the part. I treated these parts for corrosion
resistance, installed my new brake lines and reassembled, using a bit of clear
silicone sealant around the gear leg/axle mount
interface.
Has anyone else seen this? It seems to me that any
airplane parked out in the rain is sure to fill these little corrosion
reservoirs in short order.
Bob
Pastusek
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