Steve Brown

Well Known Member
I've got to pull the wheels to repack the bearings and replace the brake pads.

I haven't been able to find any clear guidance on this, which may mean I'm the only one on the planet who doesn't know how to do it.

Anyway, anyone know of any on-line or other guidance on this subject?
 
It's true, you may be the only person on the planet who doesn't know how to do this ;-)

Seriously, brakes are very, very simple to do. Bearings are a little bit of a pain because you make a mess, but no different than bearings on anything else, like a car or boat trailer.

The best way to do this is to get somebody to show you the first time.

Before you do, buy enough brake linings to do the brakes several times so you always have them around. Also buy a brake rivet tool. I like this one . You will need large cotter pins for the large nuts that hold the wheels on. While you're ordering this stuff, get them to throw in a book on aircraft maintenance. Even the very simple books on "owner maintenance" aimed at Cessna owners will cover brakes. The part numbers for the brakes should be in the plans as well as the call out for the cotter pins, but I'm sure somebody here on the board will jump in with the info off the top of their head.

You can do the brakes without pulling the wheels, but obviously the wheels have to come off to to the bearings. The hardest part of this is probably figuring out how to jack the airplane if you don't have a set of airplane jacks. The second hardest thing is taking out all those screws in the wheel pants. Make sure you have lots of extra screws around, since you inevitably booger some of them up taking them out, and you don't ever want to put a bad one back in.

Once you have the wheel off the ground, pull the cotter pin and unscrew the big nut on the outboard end of the axle. Many people don't have the right wrench or socket, so they use a pipe wrench or crescent wrench. (It's about 1 1/4" or 1 1/2"). I found a wrench at Walmart intended for installing trailer hitch balls that's just right for about nine bucks. With the nut off, the wheel slides straight outboard. You'll need to undo the brakes first, or they'll hold the brake disk. It should be pretty obvious how to take them off--IIRC it needs only a 7/16" socket.

DO NOT REMOVE THE THREE BOLTS IN THE WHEEL HUB They aren't holding the wheel on, but they do hold it together. Never touch them unless you've removed all the air from the tire by removing the valve stem. This is really the only difference between airplane wheels and other stuff.

Far and away the best way to do this is order all the stuff, and then find somebody else (preferably an RV owner) and offer to give him the parts to do his own brakes if he lets you watch.

If you're mechanically inclined, most of this will make sense as you take it apart, but it's a good idea to find someone who's done it before.
 
Thanks guys!

Finished up the bearings and brakes this week and got my inspection signed off.

Once I actually got in there and did it, it was pretty easy.