dr



HFS




Lkitson
Looking for ideas on what might be causing the right-side Grove brake caliper to stick on my RV-8
....When pre-flighting this morning I found a puddle of brake fluid under the right wheel. I pulled the wheel pant off and there was fluid all over the inside of it as well as on the caliper and the brake pads. I jacked the wheel off the ground and couldn’t get it to turn. The caliper was locked. When I pulled the caliper off I found that that the pads were worn down to the rivets. I removed the piston and couldn’t see anything visibly wrong with it, the, o-ring or the caliper bore. I replaced the o-ring and installed a new set of pads and put everything back together. The left wheel spun freely and there where no leaks. The pads still had 1/16” above the rivets but they got replaced anyway since I had done the right side.
....This is the second time this has happened (also the right side). The first time was almost two years ago shortly after I finished phase 1 flight testing. I chalked that one up to the fact that I had been doing lots of landings and tended to try to make the first turnoff at my home airport which took some aggressive braking. I thought that I had gotten the brakes too hot causing the o-ring on the right side to fail. I’ve been much less aggressive with the braking since then and have put another 173 hours and over 300 landings on the airplane. At my last condition inspection in January the pads on both sides still had plenty of material left.
....On my last few flights it did seem like it took more power to taxi.
....Thoughts?




ChrisMcC



RE: Colored Smoke
…Norcalrv7
Just did a gender reveal for a friend using nova smoke 720 and my smoke system helper kit. It absolutely did make thick blue smoke.
It also was a nightmare to clean afterwards. It won’t wipe off except with avgas or carb cleaner, and gets in every nook and cranny. I’m certain there will be some blue on my plane forever.
Proceed with caution.
N542LC



Cooling Air on Battery
…N787KV
Deformation can happen, so I insulated the battery and put in a blast tube on my Sportsman and I haven't had any more problems.




Glenncfly



IO360 alternator belt part number
…Dad’s RV-10 reply
My Aerosport IO-375 with a B&C 40 amp alternator has a Gates 7365, which is 36.5". But as TheFlightRisk wrote, measuring is the best way to be sure.
https://vansairforce.net/threads/io360-alternator-belt-part-number.229588/post-1791558



Alcladrv
On my -7A with an ECI O-360 engine and a fixed pitch Sensenich prop, the #4 CHT typically runs 30F to 60F higher than the other 3 cylinders, which are within 10 degrees of each other. It's much higher even in a 200 - 300 fpm climb than in level flight. Lately, I've observed that the oil temp typically exceeds 200F in cruise flight between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. The oil cooler is mounted on the aft baffle wall behind the #4 cylinder. The baffling appears to be in good order with good gap sealing all around.

The engine has an impulse coupled magneto on the left firing the bottom plugs. On the right, a Lightspeed system fires the top plugs. The engine was new when the plane was completed 19 years ago and now has over 1900 hrs. on it. Compressions are all in the 70s.

The high #4 CHT has become more and more performance limiting over the past couple of years. In other words, after takeoff, I need to pull the power back to 2200 - 2300 rpm just to get #4 cylinder cool down to 400F or so. Then I push the power back up to continue the climb until the #4 CHT approaches 430F.

I just wondered if there is possibly a connection between the high #4 CHT and high oil temps because of the oil cooler location.
Any thoughts?



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