Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

[Szpmichael]

Hey Guys,

Got my BC-12D down here in Santa Paula that I love so dearly and its got an issue with its brakes. My mechanic has limited time right now so I want to try to get to the bottom of it on my own.

About 4 months ago I replaced the brake linings with the ones from Classic Aero because my brakes were completely worn down to the point where I couldn't tighten them any further. Now they're at that point again after roughly 25 hours of flight and today I broke one of those little adjustment nuts on the wheel trying to over-tighen it.

When we took the wheel off to replace the linings a few months ago we noticed the shoes were badly pitted. Is this the cause for the excessive wear? Is it that the shoes are grinding down the lining because they're so textured from the pitting? Another suggestion by my mechanic is that it's possible the linings recommended by classic aero are too soft a compound? Other theories??

Thanks y'all!

[adrozell]

Re: Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

Are you landing on short strips using lots of brake? I can land all day long on a 2500 ft strip with no brake at all. That and if you are using large tires you will use make brake.

[Szpmichael]

Re: Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

Are you landing on short strips using lots of brake? I can land all day long on a 2500 ft strip with no brake at all. That and if you are using large tires you will use make brake.

Not really, no. I land on short strips but I don't feel I use the brakes excessively. Just for sharp turns while taxiing, run up, and to bleed off a little bit of speed at the end of landing rollout. No bush tires on my bird either.

[Guest]

Re: Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

Are your linings actually worn down to the rivet heads?

If not then it sounds like the issue is not lining wear but rather that you can't adjust.

That is probably due the the shoes being worn or malformed.

Dave

[otrcman]

Re: Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

Are your linings actually worn down to the rivet heads?

If not then it sounds like the issue is not lining wear but rather that you can't adjust.

That is probably due the the shoes being worn or malformed.

Dave

Drude makes an excellent point. Wear on the adjuster parts limits the adjustment travel. And your clue is just as he states. If you are at the end of your adjuster travel and the lining isn't worn down to the rivets, then your adjusters or shoes are worn. It's common to see shims placed on the ends of the shoes (where the adjuster acts) to extend adjustment travel. I keep two sets of shoes, one set with shims and one set without. When I run out of adjuster travel, I switch to the shimmed shoes for the remainder of the life of the lining.

If your lining really is worn out, then there is another possibility. Did your brakes work really well when the linings were new ? If so, you probably had soft linings. The softer linings stop you better, but wear out faster. Conversely, you can get hard lining that lasts a really long time, but the braking action is much poorer.

Dick

[Szpmichael]

Re: Excessive Brake Lining Wear on the shinns??

Thanks for the info!

Any of these is possible. I will pull the wheel off this weekend and let you know what I find in terms of lining wear. Also, it is true that the brakes worked excellently when I first put them on and every time when I adjust them