Bc-65 1940 weak brakes

[Mattzman13]

Hello, does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to adjust brakes as they are hardly working during run ups. Thanks

[3Dreaming]

http://www.taylorcraft.org.uk/Brake-issues.pdf

[Hank Jarrett]

Most of the Taylorcrafts I have flown slipped a little on run up. The brakes are really poor design. This bugged the H**L out of me and this winter I completely tore down the brakes on both of my planes. Guess what. All four gears were put together differently, and NONE of them were according to the Shinn manual! Main problem is the tang washers were mostly too thick (wrong part number) and the cup washers were missing or replaced with the wrong parts. After a LOT of searching I have found these parts are no longer made and had a machinist make them as owner produced parts.
I injured my knee (AGAIN!!!) and with the recent really cold period I haven't been able to get out and build the system back up. When I do I will be adding to the really great guide done by Rob Lees (it is on the Taylorcraft site, Care and Feeding of Shinn brakes). Go through Rob's guide first and clean EVERYTHING. Seems no one ever does a good job cleaning the whole gear, they just repack the bearings at annual. I will be out soon (I hope) with more on the unavailable parts and how to legally have them made here.

[skip]

For what it's worth, here are my experiences. Not an A&P. Your mileage may very...

First, fetch Rob Lees' wonderful paper on the Shinn brakes at https://www.taylorcraft.org.uk/Brake-issues.pdf

The brakes are fairly easy to unscrew from the landing gear leg assembly and remove for cleaning.
One bit I had to discover is that the little wedges with the threaded adjustment rod that are pulled by the brake cable and force the shoes out to the drum can be re-assembled two different ways. They have a rounded side and a square side.
If they are backwards they don't wedge-out the shoes very well. If they are in correctly they move the shoes a bit more. Makes a big difference.
When mine were backwards, and in a few other Tcrafts I have seen where they were backwards, they would hardly work and as you describe barely hold an 1800 RPM runup.
Once installed with the wedges in the correct direction mine now hold my plane on a full 2350 RPM (with a C-85) static runup.
Disassemble, clean, re-assemble paying attention to how much the wedges push, go do a runup.
Good Luck.

Skip Egdorf
BC12-D-4-85
N34237

[Scott]

Check to make sure the horseshoe does not contact the brake mount.

There's flashing from the forging of the horseshoe and if it has not been dressed off enough it will contact the brake mount and prevent full brake pressure, especially when the linings are not new. If this is the case you can stand on the brakes as hard as you want but they won't hold during run up.

S