I purchased the aluminum “booties” from the factory, as this is an opportune time to install them. The booties are supposed to help with dissipation and spreading of the thermal load due to braking during the landing rollout. Some folks have experienced sag of their landing gear legs due to the temperature rise in the brakes during extended taxi and hard braking.
My first job was to remove the existing axle from the gear leg. This was impossible to accomplish without a hydraulic press. Once the axles were removed, the cut line on the bottom of the gear leg was marked to fit the inside shape and angle of the bootie, while replicating the position of the axle flange. The gear legs were (gulp) cut with a jigsaw – no turning back now… Then the edges and corners of the gear leg were sculpted to fit the interior shape of the bootie socket.
After reinstalling the gear legs into the fuselage and verifying that the height and angles of the axles were correct, the gear legs were glued into the booties with Velocipoxy + cabo, with a smooth fillet around the edges of the joint. After curing, the holes were drilled for the bootie through-bolts.
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