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Brakes dragging

bob888

Well Known Member
I recently relined the brakes. I bled the system and had the caliper pistons pushed all the way in. All seemed OK and actually braking well BUT it seems harder to push back into the hangar and when I jack it up and turn the wheel the brake is definitely dragging, on both mains. Suggestions?
 
Dragging Brakes

Had this happen while in phase I. I found that with my heels on the floor and feet resting on the rudder pedals, while on the taxiway, the ball of my foot was applying a small amount of pressure to the brake pedals, which caused the brakes to drag. Assuming the RV10 brake/rudder set up is the same as the side by side RVs (I have not built an RV10), I did two things, one was to install return springs to the top of the masters to hold them in the released position until pressure was applied, and two was to add rudder tube extensions which keep my feet off the brake pedals. I made the extensions myself but you can now buy them pre made here from a VAF member. The rudder tube extension was most likely the majority of the solution.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

db
 
Make sure the pedals are fully retracted, sticky pedals that don't fully retract when released will cause the brakes to drag.
 
Response to Plummit...Yes on both mains. Response to others, not related to non-existent parking brake and I don't think a pedal problem. Thanks for your feedback guys.
 
Some dragging of disk brakes is normal. However it shouldn?t be any harder to push around. Lift a wheel and spin by hand. It should spin relatively freely although some contact drag may be there.
Check your caliper pins and make sure the pads can move freely. If not, clean them out and polish them up a bit. You might also check for warped rotors while your at it especially if the dragging seems inconsistent.
 
Some dragging of disk brakes is normal. However it shouldn?t be any harder to push around. Lift a wheel and spin by hand. It should spin relatively freely although some contact drag may be there.
Check your caliper pins and make sure the pads can move freely. If not, clean them out and polish them up a bit. You might also check for warped rotors while your at it especially if the dragging seems inconsistent.

+1

a bit of dragging is not uncommon with new rotors/pads and sometimes with just new pads. I wouldn't concern myself until the brakes have been exercised with a couple of moderate to agressive stops.

Larry
 
I ended up making a couple of shims with .025 aluminum and inserted them between the caliper parts. Problem solved for the most part. I expect to take them out at some point when the pads wear down some.
 
Drag

I'm going to speculate warped rotors... doesn't take much for that to cause a drag. .
 
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Make sure the pedals are fully retracted, sticky pedals that don't fully retract when released will cause the brakes to drag.

Walt - what is the cause of sticky pedals? My -10 has been difficult to push back into the hangar since day 1. I have to use my hands to pull back on the pedals and there is the tiniest of pay in there that must be doing it.
 
Just solved this in my 10. The way I secured the lines to the master cylinder was preventing the brake from easily retracting fully in some rudder pedal positions.
 
I'm not an RV-10 (9A) but this thread hits on something I ran into today. I just changed out most of my brakes - new high energy discs, new high temp o-rings, new pads. Made sure the piston was fully retracted. Recharged the brake lines and bled the left brake - no air in the right one. I pulled out to do my conditioning snubs and immediately found the right side to be dragging a fair amount. I didn't proceed with the conditioning, but that was because I had a weak battery and could not start the engine. Reading through this thread, I think my problem is my caliper pins are not moving freely, I know that this is happening at least a little. I guess I'll look at that tomorrow. Is this something that could/should be lubricated? If not, just a really good clean and make sure the movement is square?

And while I'm talking brakes, I've seen many mentions of safety wiring the brake pads, presumably to prevent the caliper pins from travelling out. What do you wire? I couldn't see anything obvious.
 
And while I'm talking brakes, I've seen many mentions of safety wiring the brake pads, presumably to prevent the caliper pins from travelling out. What do you wire? I couldn't see anything obvious.
Not the pads, but the two bolts that hold the calipers together. In the past I had brakes where those two bolts had drilled heads (safety wire to each other). But the current Cleveland brakes that came from Vans with my -10 do not have drilled bolt heads.
 
Not the pads, but the two bolts that hold the calipers together. In the past I had brakes where those two bolts had drilled heads (safety wire to each other). But the current Cleveland brakes that came from Vans with my -10 do not have drilled bolt heads.

In That case, you need to use new star washers each time the bolt is removed.
 
Safety wire

Was just watching EAA Hints for Homebuilders, they state newer brakes aren?t necessarily drilled. If they are you safety wire, if they are not, you don?t need to safety wire.
 
The OP solved the problem with shims. .then probably the problem is warped rotors. They don't warp like cars do that cause a pulsation, they warp in like a cupping direction. I have seen this before on planes that primarily use differential braking for steering. Perhaps trying to taxi by consciously minimizing brake use and use more prop blast over the rudder may prolong rotor life. The shim trick will probably be fine for another year or so anyway!
 
We had a brake dragging issue that was caused by the pedal hinge bolts being too tight. When the brakes warmed the issue got worse.

In the process I added single through bolts for the hinges, as well as return springs on the calipers.
 
Default
We had a brake dragging issue that was caused by the pedal hinge bolts being too tight. When the brakes warmed the issue got worse.

In the process I added single through bolts for the hinges, as well as return springs on the calipers.

+ 1 The single bolt is a AN 3-56 if my memory is still in tact,
 
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