I'm currently working on getting the main gear leg "fitup". The legs are inserted into a tubular sockets welded on the fuselage. I found that the legs did not fit, so the manual recommends lightly sanding either the ID of the socket or the OD of the leg; I chose the latter. I was surprised to find how much material that I needed to remove in order to have the leg "bottom out" in the socket. It turns out after looking at the sockets that they appear not to be uniform linearly along the centerline and this resulted in the need to remove extra material in order to make the leg fit. I'm somewhat concerned that, on one leg, up to .030" of material was removed where the leg extends from the socket. This is obviously a high stress location and I'm concerned that upon a "hard landing" the leg might fail catastrophically. I will inquire with Rans on this issue.
I constructed a jig to align the axles mounted on the gear legs (see below). Once the apparatus was built, I marked the drill holes through the gear sockets and step drilled up to the end size for later installation. I was informed that it is critical to ensure that the fuselage is in it's taxi position when doing this operation (when most of the tire wear will occur). I was told to place the fuselage on the floor with the gear legs in, measure this angle and then duplicate the angle in an elevated position. I used a hand clinometer to reproduce the elevated taxi position angle. This worked slick.
Footnote: I decide to replace the troubled gear leg mentioned above, and installation was uneventful; now I own a $260 "club".
