Putting strut pieces together. The pivot and middle bracket did not fit precisely - had considerable play which made it harder to position exactly to each other. The solution was to bond the middle bracket first and then place the other parts with respect to it later (as shown). This was no trivial task requiring different angle measurements since the centers of the pivots of 2 right units are not in the same plane. Note: before you assemble the nose gear you might consider a roller bearing pivot assembly instead of the KLS factory standard "Cozy MK-IV" unit. See below.

The position of nose wheel inside cover was also tricky. The factory position was not optimal. So that cutting a full size hole could be a mistake. I cut an undersize hole just enough to get the nosewheel up and then placed the cover over. And then moved the cover to left/right/forward/back extremes (places where it touches the nose wheel) and then averaged the position to get optimal clearance. With the cover in place the floor final cut position was marked with a felt pen from underneath and then the floor was cut and cover bonded into place only.

There is a gap in floor after cutting that had to be covered. The cover part not supplied by factory. A simple way to shape the gap was to cover a piece of proper shape wood block with plastic packing tape (this is magic stuff - doesn't bond to epoxy so makes a good mold release) and then cover that with peel ply and then place into position and lay two scrap fibreglass layers.

The gap cover in place

Nose gear stuff in place. But waiting for the hydraulic cylinder from factory. (Hydraulic cylinder arrived about mid Dec. 2001. But will leave it until I install the hydraulics.)

The hydraulic cylinder pivot bolt started to bend under load of wheel force. I had a welding shop weld an arch across the two aluminum bushings for support. Ken Hodge, another builder, pointed out that the nose gear should not use the cylinder to hold the landing gear down in place. It should rest against the lower bolt when in place. Onother problem was that the new Clippard replacement cylinder supplied by KLS was too long interfering with operation as seen in photo. I intend to replace it soon with a shorter one (hope it does the job). See the NG side plates construction warning. The shorter Clippard replacement cylinder arrived today (01-30-02) AND FITS with sufficient action length as seen below. What a relief - no bulkhead mods needed. BUT 10/29/02 Update: There is a problem with the clippard cylinder in general. The 0.25 inch center rod is not designed to stand thrust loads - it buckles (bends like a bow) when extension pressure is applied. Found that when testing RG retraction. I can adjust the clippard cylinder rod end so that it actually stops its travel at full extent position with the nose gear fully retracted. But what happens if you pull a few g's? It may bend or possibly distort the rod and prevent it from retracting properly to landing position - or even leak out the hydraulic fluid. The solution I found was a sturdier cylinder with a 0.5 inch center rod from "Cylinders & Valves Inc., Stongsville, OH. 440-238-7343" - "HCC-1000 5" stroke, double acting with 3/8-24 shoulder thread. The cost for this essentially custom made cylinder is $115. Shown below is the new cylinder installed with the Clippard unit in the background. You can see the obvious difference in central shafts by comparison. 12/24/04 Post build note: If you check the Landing gear construction section it notes that all three actuators were replaced with steel Custom Actuators ones. After adjusting the nose gear position the brass actuator stroke was a bit too short and I replaced it with the steel one with the added benefit of over a pound weight saving and more compactness.

(05/10/02) As I work I think about solving some problems until a reasonable method comes to mind. The nosegear when closed has a big gap underneath that would produce a lot of draft when flying. The factory model attached a big front plate on the nosegear strut that closes the "draft" gap when NG is retracted. I did not like that idea since it introduces extra drag on takeoff and is in the way of tiedown. So I thought I would rather close in the space around the NG strut when it is retracted. I covered the strut with release tape, microglassed in the gap space between the wheel well and the NG box and layed two S2 glass on top of the NG strut (with a slitt from the spring part forward), retracted the NG (which then gets squeezes out the microglass shaping it around the strut - this can be used to precisely limit the strut travel) and then simply contoured the glass around the strut down and sideways around the bottom of fuselage. This essentially makes a closed system that has minimal opening space even when the NG is down. A space had to be cutout out of this formation where the strut spring portrudes down and then a piece of small glass was attached to the bottom part of the strut where the opening is to seal it closed when retracted.

(04/23/03) I found a roller bearing nose gear MKNG6A pivot assembly at http://www.eznoselift.com/ and retrofitted it to my SQ2000 The KLS factory standard "Cozy MK-IV" pivot assembly has considerable wobble because of the bolt/bushing play. The play may get worse with time. I decided to risk the $255 and try the alternative. But there was some play between the bolt and bushing inside the new assembly and the bushing was a tad short for precision. So I machined my own bushing. An additional "tin washer" helps the precision fit. I also retrofitted grease nipples to both the NG and RG pivot assemblies - something I don't recall mentioned in SQ2000 instructions.