Aligning Axles/Cooling Flap Assembly

Yesterday was spent finishing up the Cooling Flap Assembly. Final countersinking and back riveting of the various parts. Building bud Craig showed up today with our newly delivered axle alignment tools. Using CAD he designed a system that works better and is easier to use then the Van's wood block method. But uses the same principle. After securing and jacking up the plane and removing the wheels the tooling was slipped over the axles. The inherent design keeps them secured, rigid and completely square to the axles. Fishing line or thread is stretched between the two axles and the tiny gap between the thread and tool is measured to reveal the amount of toe-in or out. Zero to .039" of toe-out is desired. A feeler gauge was used to measure. My left axle was fine with .016" of deviation. The right was way off at .10" of deviation or over 2.5 times the maximum allowed. I added two 0.75 degree shims and this brought the toe-out down to .020 and well within spec. I need to give the shims a light coat of primer and also purchase longer close tolerance bolts because the original bolts are now too short with the shims in place.