  A progress report on experiences with a gauge fixing method proposed in
LATTICE 94 is presented. In this algorithm, an SU(N) operator is diagonalized
at each site, followed by gauge fixing the diagonal (Cartan) part of the links
to Coulomb gauge using the residual abelian freedom. The Cartan sector of the
link field is separated into the physical gauge field $\alpha^{(f)}_\mu$
responsible for producing $f^{\rm Cartan}_{\mu\nu}$, the pure gauge part,
lattice artifacts, and zero modes. The gauge transformation to the physical
gauge field $\alpha^{(f)}_\mu$ is then constructed and performed. Compactness
of the lattice fields entails issues related to monopoles and zero modes which
are addressed.
