Brake O-rings

Caliper O-Ring started to leak at 1,000 flying hours. Replaced one side and within 2 weeks, other side was leaking.

3 other RVs in the SoCAL Wing of Van's Air Force have had the same kind of problem around 5 years or 1,000 hours of operation. One RV-8 put the puck in BACKWARDS then did the recommend brake lining conditioning with a high speed taxi. Needless to say, the puck came out far enough that he got 5606 on the hot disc and had a fire. Ground Control radioed the aircraft. Back at the hangar, the pilot's son put the fire out with the hangar fire extinguisher. The fire was right below a full fuel tank. Wheel pants and brakes were replaced.

On my airplane, I plan to replace O-rings every 5 years or 1,000 flying hours. DO NOT do brake lining conditioning per the recommendation that comes with the lining. RVs are much lighter than the FACTORY airplanes that the brakes were designed for.

Gary
RV-6, flying for 8 years, 1,776 flying hours.

RV6_flyer said:

DO NOT do brake lining conditioning per the recommendation that comes with the lining.

Click to expand...

Just curious, why you recommend against this proceedure, when it was the incorrectly installed brake puck which caused the fire?

FWIW cleveland did ship a number of brake assemblies with the puck installed backwards, several years ago. Vans had a service notice out to disassemble and inspect the brakes for this.

Brake conditioning

One does not need to taxi at 20 mph for 3,000 feet to condition the brakes. This makes too much heat. Too much heat increases the risk of fire. It does not take much heat to catch 5606 on fire. Yes one needs to taxi with the brakes but not 3,000 feet at 20 mph. Just do one landing and BRAKE HARD to short stop. I find that the taxi from my hangar to the runup area (1,000 feet) is enough to hold the airplane for runup. (yes with the constant speed prop I can go full power and skid the tires but the short conditioning is enough to hold it at 1,700) Once around the patch and heavy breaking on the landing is all I need. My brakes last around 400 hours.

Be careful with the brake conditioning. Yes you want to generate some heat to conditonion the brakes but not so much heat that you risk a brake fluid fire from a leak.

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sprucemoose said:

Just curious, why you recommend against this proceedure, when it was the incorrectly installed brake puck which caused the fire?

FWIW cleveland did ship a number of brake assemblies with the puck installed backwards, several years ago. Vans had a service notice out to disassemble and inspect the brakes for this.

Click to expand...