At the suggestion of my instructor, I dropped my nose gear on my alpha 60 a little to gain a bit of prop clearence. When I tightend the socket head screw back up the threads were stripped. Of course I didn't realise this untill I tried to taxi. The nose gear turned 90 degrees and that was the end of the night for me. I wanted to buy a new and improved gear, so I started to remove the stock one. The problem is the screws that hold the gear mount to the plane all turn in the blind nuts but will not back out. I believe the factory threadlock worked too well. All 4 screws will turn but will not come out. I removed the tank to see if the nuts were turning also, no luck. Here is the question. Will it be alright to fly like this with a new steering arm and set screw or do I have to start cutting wood to gain access to the blind nuts? If you kind folks have a simpler method I would love to read it. BTW I was to solo that night untill the gear gave up on me. Thanks for your time![:@]

thats a bummer that you have to repiar the plane before you solo on it. i wish i could help you but im not familiar with the Alpha 60

good luck

Michael

First off, you may not even have to remove the stock gear guides. As long as you get the same sized (diameter) nosegear, then it will slip right back into the same guides. i would suggest a fults dual strut as a more reliable gear. You can get them on towerhobbies, or your LHS for around twenty bucks.
You will have to get a new control horn, which should come with a new collar and set screw (the part you stripped).
You can also just replace the collar. It should be a standard sized wheel collar (but I can't remember the exact size right off). I had to do this a couple of times on my alpha 40. This will cost you the least amount of money.
If the gear you get fits into the mounting block, but is too long, cut it off with your dremel.
Hope this helps.
Nosegear can be the most frustrating part of a trainer while you are learning....

Oh, as a side note, lots of times you can use heat to break locktite loose. Get a good soldering iron (I use a 100 W gun) and put it right on the head of the bolt. Let it get good and hot, and then it should back right out.
This also works if you have epoxy on the threads....

to remove the nose gear if the bolts won't come out and you are planning on replacing the gear anyway, just cut the heads off the mounting bolts with a Dremmel cut off wheel.

then to extract the bolts and bad blind nuts tap the bolts with a hammer to pop them off the backside of the firewall, they will slip through the holes and replace them with new ones.

you can get new ones from the local ACE hardware store for a few cents a piece.

what I do with blind nuts is get them in position, thread a longer bolt in them, and pull on the bolt firmly to set the points into the firewall, then carefully unscrew the bolt and dip the regular mounting bolts in Vasaline,screw them back in, and fully set the blind nut by tightening the bolt with a washer, so it doesn't dig into the firewall,then a little 5 min. epoxy on the nut tops, and the nuts will be set.

the Vasaline will prevent the epoxy from sticking to the bolts.

Yeah those stupid wheel collar strip at times.
Or maybe it just slipped. Is there a knotch where the collar with the arm use to be.
You can make a another knotch if you have a drimel.
If not, you can shim it with washers or another coller. Maybe do a little Z bend on the rod if need be.

Or make an arm with a piece of metal and just solder the darn thing on.

Or just use a shorter prop with more pitch
Or use bigger wheels.
Or if you get tired of dealing with darn thing, just go tail dragging

I have an Alpha60 and have had trouble with the nose gear. I replaced mine with a Goldberg set that is stronger. Have you also noticed that on the stock gear the flat for the steering arm puts the arm close enough to the firewall to restrict it's travel? The Goldberg gear came with no flat cut on the strut so I could position it where I wanted to.

I also had blind nut problems and ended up drilling them out completely, drilling a 5/16 hole where each of the four were, epoxying in some 5/16 dowel stock and starting from scratch. I ended up using old fashioned nuts, bolts and lock washers to fasten the new guide to the firewall. I have a couple of long 1/4 inch drive extensions, and could reach the inside of the firewall to hold the nuts in place while tightening the bolts from the front. A little locktite and I haven't had to touch 'em since.

My landing technique has improved exponentially, so I'm no longer putting the stress on the nose gear that I was initially, but the new installation is more solid than the old. I've probably got close to 100 landings on the gear and it hasn't loosened the first bit.

Another tip is to find a steering arm with a hardened steel thread rather than brass. It will allow you to increase the torque on the setscrew without stripping out.

Good luck. It's a great flying plane......especially after getting comfortable enough with it to ditch the three blade prop. I'm using a Master Screw 12x7 (12x6?) and it really wakes the plane up.

Was there a flat when you lengthened the nose gear? If not, that might be why it slipped.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNZV8&P=7

I think you may have meant for this to go to the original poster.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I ended up cutting off the original mounting screw heads and replaced the gear with a Fults. I used a long piece of threaded rod to start the blind nuts in the firewall. I had to really think about how I was going to get those blind nuts in place. Made my brain hurt a bit. I also went with a 3" wheel instead of the 2.75 original size. I started using a 12 x 6 prop instead of the 3 blade after the first training session. That shortened up the take-off run a bit. All is well now, I hope. Now the weather is calling for thunder storms on my training night. (solo night) That just prolongs the butterflies I have to endure untill I finally solo. [X(]

Why didn't you just put screws with heads back in it ?
When you tigthen it, it'll compress the bind nut into the fire wall again.
Just drop some CA on the threads behind the firewall to prevent it from getting loose, but you'll still be able to break it free.

If you have extra nuts, double nut it from behind so it press againt the bind nuts
Or get rid the bind nuts and just use washers.

Put foam against the firewall so the screws won't punture your tank.

Sorry, I didn't explain properly. I replaced the entire nose gear with a Fults, including the screws. I used socket head instead of philips head screws. I was just explaining how I managed to get new blind nuts installed without major wood cutting. It's a long way to the firewall from the inside. That's where I used the long piece of threaded rod with the blind nuts temporarily threaded on the end. It worked well to set the nuts enough to start the screws into them and set the nuts into the firewall.

I read many of these posts and enjoy replying if I can be helpful. I wish to commend you on the way in which you solved you nose gear problem. All to many do not even try to figure a means of doing something and they will be in constant trouble because this hobby does require thinking all too often. However, that's part of what's good about it.