Aircraft Specialty's RV-12 Brake Line Kit

[John-G]

Earlier in the summer I took possession of Aircraft Specialty?s first complete RV-12 brake line kit shipped for RV-12 owners desiring Vinyl coated, Teflon and stainless brake hoses. I asked Steve at Aircraft Specialyt to configure the kit to interface with a Matco PVPV-D parking brake. First impressions ?. The RV-12 brake line kit contains extremely high quality hoses and was complete with all the necessary fittings. The quality of the materials and workmanship is outstanding. Steve even screwed the fittings onto both ends of every hose so there was no question as to which fitting should be used with a particular brake line assembly. A nice touch and shows good consideration for Steve?s customers. Of course, it will still be a few months down the road until the hoses are filled with fluid. So don?t know if they will leak ? but judging by the way they look, seriously doubt there will be any issues in that regard. Below is a photo of the components that were included in the RV-12 brake line kit minus the Matco PVPV-D parking brake assembly which I already had previously purchased.



By following the directions and photos Steve at Aircraft Specialty provided, the RV-12 brake line kit?s components attached onto the rudder/brake pedal assembly easily and without complications.



To aid in making measurements for placement of the Matco parking brake and the Van?s poly brake lines running aft from the parking brake, the rudder/brake pedal assembly was temporally set on top of the tunnel ribs. The mounting position for the Matco parking brake was established and drilled, then the Matco parking brake was loosely secured in place.



The above photo shows the brake hardware loosely positioned (because the pedal assembly is being removed for better tunnel access) but the viewer can easily get a general idea how nice the Aircraft Specialty kit will look when the install is finalized. My overall thoughts ? Aircraft Specialty has put together a very high quality RV-12 brake line kit made from high quality components and provides great customer service. The Aircraft Specialty RV-12 brake line kit is a winner. I?m pleased to have their product on board the RV-12.

[AndyRV7]

They look nice John. What are the blue fitting made of? I am in the process of trying to figure out how to fix my brake gremlins on my 7 and my brakes look exactly like yours (hoses and fittings included). The reason I ask is that a friend of mine thought I had aluminum fittings and he said he fixed his cylinder leaks by replacing with brass. Just one of the 50 or so suggestions I've read in all the leaking brake threads.

Thanks.

[TS Flightlines]

Andy---do you have leaks or a spongy pedal?
The blue AN fittings are AN822-3D's.
tom

[AndyRV7]

Pedals are very firm but the lower fitting is surrounded by fluid. It may be running down from the upper fitting though. Either way I have some o-rings and thread sealer coming. Thanks.

[Aircraft Specialty]

Andy....

I am not sure where you purchased your hoses, but feel free to contact me at aircraftspecialty@gmail.com.

Or you can contact Tom at TS Flightlines. Either one of us would be happy to help you out.

The blue AN fittings shouldn't be leaking. A potential fix is to use some DEL 37 degree flaring seals.

Let us know if we can help you out.

Steve

[John-G]

Andy ... When I was playing around with the poly brake line tubing Van's supplies, I noticed after the brass insert is installed the diameter of the poly tube expands slightly. When the compression fitting sleeve/nut are slid over the brass insert, it can result in a very tiny shaving of poly being scraped off the tubing. I saw this happen a couple of times.

Once it was just a very tiny amount that would have not interfered with the mating surfaces ... however, once I actually saw a small sliver of the poly extend over the mating surface of the compression sleeve. Perhaps a small sliver of the poly is on the mating surface of your leaking compression fitting. In my case it was quite transparent because it was so thin and subsequently hard to spot ... but it was there. This may be your issue ... you may be lucky and be able to fix it with good light, a magnifying glass and a tiny pointy probe.

[Dgamble]

Are those springs on the brake cylinders part of the kit now? I haven't seen those before.

[John-G]

Dave, the springs ARE NOT part of the kit. I have read the Matco brake cylinders have been known to not fully return after a little age is on them ? causing just a little brake drag. I did not read about this regarding the RV-12 specifically (which utilizes a different pedal hinge configuration than other RV?s) ? but the brake cylinders are the same style, so I decided to make a preemptive strike.

[AndyRV7]

Thanks for all the support guys. And sorry I hi-jacked your thread John.

For what it's worth, here is a pic of my interior problem. The right brake itself got pretty noisy today too. It used to just complain a little when I was dragging the plane in or out of the hangar. Today it actually groaned pretty good (but intermittently) while I was braking on landing. Not a condition I am comfortable with. I am going to try to get someone to help me at least change the o-rings and add some permatex to the threads. And then I can tackle the groaning. I don't really know that much about the brake system, other than what I can deduce from the comments here and in other threads. I imagine I need to drain the reservoir and the lines, change the o-rings, and then refill and bleed. I just have no idea how to actually do any of those things.

Thanks again! Andy

[Aircraft Specialty]

It appears as if the leak is coming from the NPT thread on the AN fitting. I can't really tell, but if there is no thread sealant in there, you will want to utilize one when you reassemble it.

If you would like to talk about it, please feel free to give us a call tomorrow or send us an email with your contact info.

Have a great day
Steve