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To attach the strut to the engine mount, I had to attach the drive cap. This piece will connect to a rod that will be attached to the rudder pedals. Push the rudder pedals, turn the wheel. It attaches with a long bolt and bushing. The long bolt and bushing will limit how far the strut can rotate.  The bolt has to align with the wheel and the drive cap arm has to be perpendicular to the bolt. The top of the cap also has to be flush with top of the strut.

That turns out to be slightly tricky but not too hard. With the spring in place, just slipping the strut in place will leave the cap about 3/8” too high. This is on purpose. The specs of the spring indicate that it will compress an inch with over 400 pounds of load. To attach the bolt I needed to compress the spring about 175 pounds worth.  I wasn’t sure how I would do it but, with the wheel off, I was able to push down with most of my weight on the engine mount and slip the bolt in. Then I just had to reattach the engine mount.

With the engine mount off, I also took advantage of this opportunity to clean up the mounting holes for the engine mount.  I had not done this yet, since I knew I was going to take the mount off at least once.