I fit the brake flanges to the gear legs. It was only after I took this picture that I realized the bolt had to come back out to fit the caliper mounting bracket. This required reaming the holes in the mounting brackets (which were slightly undersize) out to 1/4″ for the 1/4-20 socket head bolts. I have no idea why these aren’t standard AN hardware. In fact, the nut looks like something you’d find at the hardware store, but this is what Van’s specifies.
I reamed the caliper holes out with my 1/4″ chucking reamer for the AN4 bolts that hold the caliper mounting bracket to the brake bracket and attached in with some AN4-6A bolts. I would have used AN4-5A bolts except that I didn’t have any. The plans specify AN4-11A bolts because these also go through some spacers and the wheel pant mounting bracket. I’ll do the phase 1 flights without that bracket installed though since it’s prone to cracking without the wheel pant in place, so this will probably be how this stays all the way to first flight.
I lubricated the gear leg with some AeroShell 33MS grease (the only grease I’m using for the entire airplane), and slipped it into place.
I installed the AN5-21A bolts ad torqued them down. AN5-20A would have been better since I had to use two washers, but I don’t have any.
Finally, I repacked the wheel bearings with fresh AeroShell 33MS grease and mounted the wheel and brake caliper. Nothing’s been final torqued at this point.
