Outer gear door linkage. Spent all day working on a linkage geometry that would work. Finally got it working. The idea was to develop a working wood mock up and then get Keith to 3D print a usable bracket.
Big problem is the hinge line of the gear trunion and the door are not parallel. This causes the linkage to have to move in all 3 axies when moving from gear up to gear down.
After several hours of staring at it I made a paper template that used existing holes in the gear trunion to hold a door bracket in place.
Paper pattern made to wood mockup. Keith recommended an adjustable bracket so I added a top piece with the concept of making it slide up and down in a screw slot.
4-40 Dubro links cut down to make a small turnbuckle style link to the door
First test showed the wood mock up too thick to close the door. The adjustable bracket did not seem to be needed since the link was adjustable so I removed the adjustable layer. Now the link hit the edge of the gear mount cover. So I cut off 3mm from the trailing edge of the bracket and the link cleared the cover. However now the door hit the top of the socket head bolts and would not close completely.
Cutting off the edge of the bracket cleared the cover but now the link would hit the trunion when closed if it was aligned with the strut.
Next I made another bracket that was taller so the link would clear the trunion. Also I found some thin round head screws and the door would close.
The trick was where to place the door attach lug to keep the link from hitting the trunion. Got that fixed and found that when the gear retracts the link becomes near parallel with the door and has no leverage to close the door. I needed to lower the ball link on the strut side to get more pull on the door when retracted.