Cup washers for Shinn Brakes available

[Hank Jarrett]

I have been doing a LOT of work on the Shinn brakes on my two Taylorcrafts and can see why so many people think Taylorcraft brakes really stink. Most of them are assembled WRONG with the wrong parts! I have worked with a couple of IAs and a really great machinist to make the washers as "Owner Produced Parts). So far the first few look like they will run about $20 each but the cost should come down with more orders. Mine were expensive, yours don't have to be, BUT you have to be involved with making them in accordance with the FAA process. The machinist will actually turn the parts from mild steel but YOU will have to provide the instructions in the form of a fairly simple drawing and when you get the parts back YOU have to do the Quality Assurance on the parts. It is NOT hard and the FAA wants the Owner Produced Parts process to be educational for YOU, the owner. I CAN NOT sell you the parts or do the drawing and QA for you but I CAN provide all of the information for YOU to do it.
How much interest is there in getting brakes that actually WORK? I am attaching a photo of the parts I have done and have a source for the bearings and races (original equipment bearings are still available NEW!).

brake.jpg Hank

[TCUDustoff]

Hank I am not seeing the images. What washer are you talking about? The dust shields for the bearings? I found a replacement for those...I need to go dig it up. I shared it with the Luscombe foundation when I went on my bearing hunt. I have two complete spare sets of brakes and wheels, including some sort of hydraulic conversion for the Shinn brakes that I have no idea what they came off, so I plan on running these till I croak or the plane ends up in a museum! (one of my wheels is stamped Firestone 1938!).

P.S. I tried to send you a PM, but I won that original Taylorcraft compass on eBay Winston Larrison posted on the FB group and we need to talk on the restoration. I am boycotting Meta, so no Facepage for me, but PM me hah! I need your number.

[Hank Jarrett]

There are some additions and changes for the Shinn brake document I posted (please keep sending me suggestions!)

The first is that one of the people working on their brakes found that some of the Stirrups out there have poorly trimmed forging waste that can interfere with proper operation. The stirrup is manufactured from a piece of hot metal that is laid down between two dies and hammered into the basic shape. It is then machined to form the shoes on the ends of the stirrup with the angled ends that are so easy to put in backwards, have the spring holes drilled, some other minor machining and the forging waste ground off. Therein lays the problem. If the forging waste is not trimmed enough before the parts are assembled the waste material can contact the Bow Tie when the Stirrup is deflected by brake application and it will contact the bow tie preventing the brakes from expanding fully. Checking is fairly simple but requires removal of the wheel and depressing the brake pedals while checking that the rough edge of the stirrup isn't contacting the Bow Tie. If your brakes are holding on a run-up you most likely DO NOT have this problem (neither of my planes did). If it does hit the Bow Tie prior to full brake expansion you unfortunately will need to take the brake apart and grind or file off some of the forging waste. It is fairly hard to see if the Stirrup is hitting but sliding a slip of paper between the Stirrup and Bow Tie before applying the brakes and then insuring the paper slides out with the brakes applied is a good way to check. If there is interference mark the Stirrup where it is hitting before removal so as little metal as possible is removed. Also make sure to NOT notch the Stirrup with the grinder or file and smoothly transition the contact area to not cause a stress concentration that could cause a crack in the Stirrup. The idea is to remove as LITTLE material as possible and still allow for clearance. You DO NOT want to ruin the Stirrup, they are getting really hard to find.

The second problem found has to do with making replacement parts using the Owner Produced Parts process. I was advised that Skybound in Atlanta GA had a supply of new old stock brake parts. The FAA regulations on Owner Produced Parts DO NOT allow us to make replacement parts if they are available as New Old Stock or from a company that has a PMA to manufacture them. I tried several times to contact Skybound and could never get through by phone and could not find an E-Mail address for them. I finally checked with the Atlanta Better Business Bureau and their site says Skybound has gone out of business. I have run into this problem before with parts (in particular on wing struts) where there is advertising for parts where the manufacturer or supplier either is out of business or does not actually have the parts. In those cases the FAA did not seem to care if the parts were really there. They were advertised and the FAA representative said I had to get the part from them. This was an especially bad problem when the "Factory" was supposed to be in Mexico and had advertised full support with parts for our planes. There were NO parts in Mexico and nothing was in stock there. I finally asked the FAA rep to try to purchase ANY part from Mexico and I would pay for it. No matter WHAT part they advertised they had I said I would pay. He could not find a single part that they actually had and he agreed I could make my parts. Again, as far as can be told the factory in Mexico does not actually exist, even though it seems to be making a profit. I have my own ideas what they are selling, but it isn't Taylorcrafts or parts for them. I think what the Mexican factory is selling is just smoke (that was a joke).

I will be adding some changes to the maintenance document when time allows so it can be a standalone document instead of having to look at these messages. If anyone has actually had contact (recently) with Skybound please let us all know. From what I heard they were a good company to deal with, if not a bit expensive.

Hank