Champ Adjusting Toe-in Alignment

[navyav8er]

I have a new to me Champ that has a toe-in issue. I've measured the toe-in using a straight edge placed against the leading face of the tires and used a square to measure the difference between the forward and aft edges of the 7.5" wheel rim. The left is 3/8 inches and the right is 5/8 inches toe'd in (ideally I'm looking for zero to ~1/8 inch toe-in). This is making it very difficulty to just taxi straight. Since the gear strut and axle are all one piece and can't be shimmed, how do you recommend I adjust the toe-in?

The aircraft was rebuilt 23 years ago and didn't fly much after that. I don't know of any damage history since the rebuild, and the logs say the fuselage was replaced with a "zero time airframe" during the rebuild. Visually the gear doesn't look bent, but you can see the toe-in.


Any ideas other than buying new gear for $5k and even then I'm not sure it'll fix the problem. Thanks. Scott

 

[Bob Turner]

I measure the tires front and back. On any tire 6" to 8" we find that a difference front to back more than 1/2" leads to instability on rollout.

For Cubs and early Champs the cure is a "rosebud" torch, a long pipe, and a really good eye. The pipe aids in bending as well as enabling the bender to see when things come into alignment.

Yeah - before assuming it is the gear leg, borrow another set and measure. At a thousand dollars a pop, you would want to know if a new leg would cure it.