Brake problems

[Frank DeBartolo]

Thankfully this happened in front of my hangar. I was turning the airplane so that I could back it into the hangar when I felt something give in the left brake pedal and the left brake died--no brake. The pedal goes all the way to the stop without any braking action. The cables appear to be ok but looser. the pedals (both right and left) activate the linkages that go into the brake drum itself, and the left linkages have a lot of movement but no braking action. This is a 1946 BC12-D with Shinn Brakes.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank D

[jstall]

Re: Brake problems

Thankfully this happened in front of my hangar. I was turning the airplane so that I could back it into the hangar when I felt something give in the left brake pedal and the left brake died--no brake. The pedal goes all the way to the stop without any braking action. The cables appear to be ok but looser. the pedals (both right and left) activate the linkages that go into the brake drum itself, and the left linkages have a lot of movement but no braking action. This is a 1946 BC12-D with Shinn Brakes.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank D

Frank, I've had problems with both of my brake cables litterly letting go, problem was that they didn't do it all at once. What happened was they broke about 90% of the strands, and let the cable get slack enough that the adjustment was gone, and the brake wouldn't work, it would kinda actuate but not enough. Finally I re-adjusted and worked the right one till it totally broke, then I went into the belly under the floor pan and saw the situation. I don't have shinns, but the mechanical clevelands, however the actuating portion of that is the same from the pettle to the brake itself. I would sure check. The pan just behind the firewall under the A/C and just ahead of the
bungee covers has a screw in it and several accross the front, take those loose and you can pull it down and see back up in there. I'll bet you have a broken or partially separated cable.

If your A/C doesn't have the screws accross the width of that belly floor pan then you will have to pull the floor board to see the cables
either way, its not a super bad job, took me a morning doing it alone to replace one cable. You will need to get cable and the swedges
to complete the job, or have your mechanic do it. I got my stuff from Aircraft Spruce

J Stallings
[email protected]
Alva, Ok

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Brake problems

Thanks,

Frank

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Brake problems

James,

It was exactly as you said it would be. I removed the metal floor and there was the frayed cable with only one strand holding it together. So, I am waiting for a new cable to repair it.

Thanks again.

Frank