Brake Disc Replacement

[Kyle Boatright]

What are the objective measures to determine when to replace aircraft brake discs? I have 800 hours and a couple of thousand landings on my original discs and have no idea how to determine when to replace them.

Thanks in advance,

[Dean Pichon]

On my Cleveland discs, the P/N is stamped into the edge. With that P/N and the Cleveland disc brake manual (available from their website), you can look up the wear limits for your disk. I measured mine this past annual (~600 hours/~1000 landings) and found I had only a few mils left to work with before they will need to be replaced.

[erich weaver]

Replace them before the pads are worn down to the point that the rivet heads are in danger of making contact with the rotors and wearing grooves into them. When you dissassemble the brakes the first time, this will become obvious. I would suggest keeping a couple of sets of brake pads on hand, along with the special brake rivet setting tool so that they can be replaced when needed without waiting for your next ACS order to arrive.

erich

[krw5927]

Think Kyle was talking about the actual disc (rotor, in the car world) rather than the pads. Sage advice about keeping 2 spare sets and the tool on hand though.

[erich weaver]

Ahhh, my bad. Should have read the post more carefully.
e