Brief Description: Redo Right Brake Line from Fuselage to Caliper
I've gone back and forth on the brake lines running from the fuselage down the gear legs to the calipers. Someone had a failure of their 1/4" aluminum tubing close to their caliper in the relief-loop around the gear leg and that convinced me to use steel-braided flexible lines. So,,,that's what I originally installed but I never really felt comfortable with how these had to connect to the calipers. I had to replace the 90 degree elbow fittings with straight fittings in order to make them work and that setup seemed to place some outward pressure on the calipers such that the pads would have always rubbed. Then I read a couple of posts on the RV-List about Van's not recommending steel-braided lines because they can wear into the gear legs and cause havoc. That convinced me to just stick with the plans and go back to the original fittings and 1/4" aluminum tubing for the lines.
So,,,that's what I worked on today. I removed the steel-braided lines, replaced the straight fittings at the calipers with 90 degreee fittings, and fabricated new brake lines with the service/relief loop for the calipers out of 1/4" aluminum tubing. These were installed using three 1/4" inside diameter vinyl tubing sections about an inch long to offset the aluminum lines from the gear legs and secured with electrical tape. I had to cut the safety wire on the calipers and loosen up the bolts in order to allow enough clearance past the rotors while re-installing the 90 degree fittings and then re-torque and re-safety wire the bolts.
New 1/4" aluminum tubing brake line with loop connected to right caliper
New 1/4" aluminum tubing brake line connected to fuselage fitting
New 1/4 aluminum brake line on aft side of right gear leg & secured with vinyl tubing & electical tape
