219 – I Installed New Brake Linings and the Wheel Would Not Turn!

Airplane Owner Maintenance - By Dean Showalter

It took some significant detective work and deciphering to solve this mystery.

The brake caliper at the top of the photo was the wrong part number for the A36 Bonanza I was working on.

The one at the bottom of the photo is a serviceable one we found on eBay. It was the correct one, and the 1/8 inch extra depth at the edges of the caliper made all the difference.

This problem apparently went unnoticed for an undetermined amount of time.

The only reason I discovered the problem was because I installed new brake linings and after reassembling the brake caliper, the wheel would not turn at all. Everything seemed to be working fine with the worn linings.

But new linings made it too tight for the wheel to turn.

After installing the correct brake caliper, everything was back to normal.

What an ordeal! I’m glad it’s fixed.

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In this week’s podcast episode, I talked about the brake situation above, and about some flying from this week.

Here’s a sampling of the places I had the opportunity to fly to this past week:

• Near Myrtle Beach SC.
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Montpelier VT
• Chattanooga TN
• Dalton GA

And just for fun, here’s a photo of the King Air on the ramp in Vermont… we put the engine and pitot covers on for the night while we were there.

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Thanks for checking out the podcast! The next episode might just come from Maui! We’ll see.

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