Wanted to see if anyone here has an idea on my root cause of the left brake completely locked on (Rv4). I'll share the events leading up to discovery and what I've tried.
I park on the ramp in the PNW and it didn't really rain this year until during the 2wk stretch since my last flight when all was normal and picked up the tail to pull it backwards into its spot. The other odd phenomenon was the first decent wind storm of the year for us.
Jumped in after a pre flight and it feels like my tail wheel is tied down to the ring still but I clearly removed my strap in pre flight. I holler back to my 6yo passenger "did you happen to put the strap back on the plane". He claims "no" but then says he forgot, so at this point I have too much throttle in for a normal taxi with full tanks and then it pivots as if only left tire is frozen.
Hop out and left tire won't move forward or back. Totally frozen. Pull the wheel pant and then tap the master cylender a little and it frees so I think it was just pads temporarily rusted to the rotor due to rain. I didn't fly that day and decided two days later I should go.
Same locked wheel can't get it to move and tapping doesn't fix it so I take pads off and it frees. Put pads back and it's locked. Used a c clamp on the piston and doesn't really seem to move.
At this point I've pulled the caliper and rebuilding the piston via scotch bright and anew o-ring in a week when it shows up. I'm not sure this is the fix for good so ideas on root cause are welcome. On a182 I used to own the piston gave a warning. It would start to have a dragging (not at all locked up) brake.
I park on the ramp in the PNW and it didn't really rain this year until during the 2wk stretch since my last flight when all was normal and picked up the tail to pull it backwards into its spot. The other odd phenomenon was the first decent wind storm of the year for us.
Jumped in after a pre flight and it feels like my tail wheel is tied down to the ring still but I clearly removed my strap in pre flight. I holler back to my 6yo passenger "did you happen to put the strap back on the plane". He claims "no" but then says he forgot, so at this point I have too much throttle in for a normal taxi with full tanks and then it pivots as if only left tire is frozen.
Hop out and left tire won't move forward or back. Totally frozen. Pull the wheel pant and then tap the master cylender a little and it frees so I think it was just pads temporarily rusted to the rotor due to rain. I didn't fly that day and decided two days later I should go.
Same locked wheel can't get it to move and tapping doesn't fix it so I take pads off and it frees. Put pads back and it's locked. Used a c clamp on the piston and doesn't really seem to move.
At this point I've pulled the caliper and rebuilding the piston via scotch bright and anew o-ring in a week when it shows up. I'm not sure this is the fix for good so ideas on root cause are welcome. On a182 I used to own the piston gave a warning. It would start to have a dragging (not at all locked up) brake.