Cleveland Disc Brakes

[RV6_flyer]

Does anyone check the thickness of their discs during the once a year condition inspection?

Cleveland has a Technician's Service Guide that lists minimum thickness at 0.167". It also says that up to 0.030" groves are ok. I replaced mine today as the groves LOOKED like they were approaching 0.030. When I got the disc off, I measured the thickenss. 0.1544" and 0.1496". Both were below the minimum thickness. New thickenss was measured at 0.186 - 0.187.

The left caliper O-Ring looks like it was starting to weap some 5606. It was damp but not leaking. Both O-Rings were replaced. the O-Ring that was getting ready to leak had a FLAT spot where it rubs the caliper cylinder.

Just spent 6 hours on brakes. Still need to bleed them. I am in the process of doing my once a year condition inspection and did not expect to find this. The way I look at it, better to find it now instead of on my way to Oshkosh or on the way back.

This is the 2nd set of O-Rings and the first time that I have worn out a disc.

There are 4 RVs that I fly with that had caliper O-Rings leak at 5 years or 1,000 flying hours. There are others that have had problems with less time. I do not know of any one that has had caliper O-Rings last more than 5 years or 1,000 hours. If yours have lasted longer, I would be interested in knowing how old or how long they lasted.

1,888 flying hours. First Fight September 1997.

[Dgamble]

No, I haven't been in the habit of checking disk thickness, but I'm going to add it to the checklist now. I only have a couple of hundred hours on them, but that seems like an easy enough thing to check, and the benefits are obvious. Thanks for the heads-up.

I did notice that I'm getting a little dampness around the left caliper - I think it might be the O-ring. How involved is the replacement operation?