Hello - anyone who has installed the TLGW Titanium Gear on their 185 - Did you notice any handling differences afterwards? i.e. spring rebound, stiffness or whatever?

I'm getting ready to trim out my gear boxes and I really want to know before I make shavings.... Thanks in advance!

I talked to a pilot that had them on a 185 and he thought it was stiffer. I've been toying with the idea of getting titanium but still can't bring myself to make the call. Do you have a good handle on just where the milling on the gear box is and what tool is used?

I do, there is a template in the STC kit and I have thought out what the template is showing me to do. Remove about .070 from the upper web. The instructions aren't the best in my opinion. As for the tool, I spent a few days finding what I think will work - I found an extension for a die grinder bit so I can keep a 90' angle on the gear box web. We shall see if it works this weekend. If it doesn't, I am back to the drawing board so to speak.

Please take some pictures. So up where the shims are it sounds like. That free hand 90 degree part is what concerns me the most.

LH gear installed, then work called and I had to leave town - but I'll pick up where I left off on my return. I was able to use a 90' die grinder and a tapered bit on an extension to get into the gearbox area and remove about .070" from the top of the gear cut out. I added a hardwood block to the bit extension tool to give me stability while grinding away. I then used a tapered stone to clean up the grinding marks, finally sandpaper and zinc chromate touch up.

As per the STC instructions I also had to remove about .020" from the wedges, and I did not re-install shims under the wedges. The IPC says the quantity for the shims is AR (as required) which I take to mean zero to as many as needed. These are not the shims used to level the wings, those shims go under the attaching bolt head and are again qty: AR. On the LH side gear there were no shims installed as removed so everything went back together the same way.

Once I get the RH gear installed I'll check wing level and tire alignments before I close all up.

The pics are of the gearbox cutout with the STC template installed showing the material to be removed, the same area after rough grinding, the die grinder setup, collection of bits/stones available to me, the method used to suspend the airplane while doing this work, and the LH gear with wedges in place.

More to follow.

I'm sure you are, but I'd be VERY careful lifting a 185 by the engine mount....

MTV

Thank you for the pictures and looking forward to the finish and also a takeoff and landing report.

Finally had a window to finish the gear install, the process went pretty much the same on the LH gear, about 4 hrs to finish. Found the wheel alignment way off, very toed in so followed the manual a bit but improvised further. I was aiming for zero toe in and slight camber. I used a long set of trammel bars and a couple of plumb bobs to make the measurements. It took 4 tries with shim combinations to get slight toe in and slight camber. Taxi/flight test today if the winds die down.

Great job reporting back. Someone will find this useful.

Thanks again. After putting new wheels,axles,brakes back on my original gear I found out the bolts have to bend when the shims are used. More shims,more bend. I think you had to use the titanium bolts for the axle and am wondering how that went as far as bending and getting a good fit with shim to landing gear so it is all tight together? My original gear has a lot of toe in built into the gear and seems they could have just made them want to be parallel when they were formed to begin with.

Laser works great for an alignment aid. But gear alignment on Cessnas is arguably the biggest PITA there’s is. And the most important.

Great thread, thanks for sharing!

MTV

180Marty, yes you’re correct regarding the bolts and shims. I had to use a fairly thick set and I worried the bolt up wasn’t square, and paid attention to how I tightened everything and snugged up the thin part first then the bolts through the thicker part of the shim. I don’t think the bolts ‘bent’ but I really wasn’t happy to have to deal with such a thick stack up. The bolts aren’t titanium, regular NAS, but used with painted washers supplied with the gear kit.

Taxi and flight test was good but I’ll have to go out and explore further to really tell what the difference may be in flex etc. Work calls again.