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Brake grease?

LettersFromFlyoverCountry

Well Known Member
In his excellent EAA homebuilder video on brake pads (I'm replacing mine), Dick Kohler said the two studs on which the lining plate moves should be lightly greased with a "high temperature silicon grease." I'm unfamiliar with this. Does anyone have a particular recommendation?

Also, it seems like greasing these is inviting contamination and crud to get up in there and mess up the works.
 
Pin Lube

I used Never-Seeze on mine. It's more likely that dirt, mud, water will get on the pins and cause them to seize than the lube get on the disc rotors and cause braking problems. Use very little. Have a look on the manufacturer's website and see if they have a maintenance manual, it should specify a lubricant product.
 
Failure to lube caliper pins is a common cause of uneven pad wear or left/right pull when braking. The caliper must be able to slide freely. Same for any car, truck, or airplane with single-side caliper pistons.

Bob, you're right, but it's something we just live with. In the automotive world the pins get rubber seals to keep the dirt and water out. However, it's not unusual for a set of pads to go 75,000 miles these days, so nobody checks the pins very often. Ours get more regular attention.

Clean the bores and the pins with a good solvent, polish out any rust or roughness, lube lightly, and you'll be fine till next annual.
 
Bob, I use Permatex? Ultra Disc Brake Caliper Lube. The auto parts stores around here have it in a 10 gram package at the front counter.
 
This is a very timely post for me. I just completed the condition inspection and replaced all brake pads. The A&P that performed the inspection suggested coating them a very light coat of lithium grease.

Now it sounds like that is not such a good idea. Should I remove them clean the pins and sockets, spray with some silicon lube, and then reassemble?

On a related issue, the left brake was leaking at the caliper disc. We changed the O-ring, using brake fluid to lube it before reinstalling the disc.

Now the left brake makes a "groaning" sound, but only when there is only a slight amount of brake pedal pressure applied. If I let off the pressure, or increase the pressure, the groan goes away. Both brakes hold well at static RPM.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.
 
Thanks, Walt, can I get that at an auto parts store? If so I will pull the pants and brakes this weekend and clean and re-lube and reinstall.

Any ideas on the groaning noise? I can hear it in the cockpit with my ANR on. I'm trying to recall if I can feel any vibration, and if I can, it is very slight, mainly just noise. Kind of like a dry pad on a dry disc...
 
Thanks, Walt, can I get that at an auto parts store? If so I will pull the pants and brakes this weekend and clean and re-lube and reinstall.

Any ideas on the groaning noise? I can hear it in the cockpit with my ANR on. I'm trying to recall if I can feel any vibration, and if I can, it is very slight, mainly just noise. Kind of like a dry pad on a dry disc...

Most places sell some kind of dry moly lube, I've used Hopps dry lube (gun stores) and Dri-slide from the bike store and probably a few others over the years.

"Groaning" is caused by vibration and is usually from worn or contaminated pads. If you get grease of 5606 on the pads or disc and fail to clean it off you can ruin the pads.
 
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