Cleveland brakes

[jcolt]

Hello!

I have a tailwheel conversion Colt with Cleveland Disk brakes and master cylinders that I'm having issues with.
The brakes are barely working. Both sides!
-I bought the rebuild kits for the master cylinders, rebuilt them and nothing changed.
-Have bled them multiple times. Was not successful trying to pump fluid upwards. The fluid wouldn't go upwards at all with a small hand pump. Had to use the fill and pump technique to bleed.
Brake pedals are very firm.
-Detached the lines from the cylinder and blew out the lines. Doesn't seem to be any restrictions.
- Two short stainless steel flexible lines are in series on both sides. The remainder is copper tubing running down the struts.
-I drilled a 1/32" hole in the fill plug.

Any suggestions? I'm going to replace the soft lines next to see if there is a liner issue? Frustrating. A lot of brake dust on one side and seems to get stuck after I fly.
Thanks for reading!

Regards,
Jim

 

[moe2goe]

Hey Jim, confirm your parking brake operation is correct with correct PB lever position. I I had an intermittent brake problem that ended up being a parking brake pull cable that was not allowing the parking brake to fully disengage.
I installed a new cable and positioned the lever properly , took care of my issues.
good luck, Moe

 

[jcolt]

Thanks Moe. Well possibly slight issue. Not sure if I have a parking brake. I don't think the cable is attached to anything . I'll have to check it out tomorrow at the airport. I know at a minimum the parking brake cable does nothing and didn't have any resistance.

 

[Gilbert Pierce]

You sure you opened the bleeder valve on the wheel cylinder?

 

[moe2goe]

Hey Jim,
my pacer is a converted tripacer. Maybe same conversion as yours, maybe not. Here is the parking brake I have mounted under the floorboard near pilots left foot area.

 

[jcolt]

Yes. Fluid flows very easily through.

 

[jcolt]

I'll look tonight! I'm not 100% sure how to get in there, but i'll figure it out. Thanks! Do you have brakes on the passenger side as well? You have a lot of ports!

 

[moe2goe]

Access to parking brake valve on a conversion like mine is from the belly pan just aft of the firewall. It’s hard to get your hand in there because the belly pan is riveted to the firewall leaving slight access.
I do have passenger brakes but doesn’t matter because the four ports are left and right fluid in and left and right fluid out.
the holes in the middle of the valve block are for the mounting bolts.

 

[jcolt]

Thanks Moe, I'm looking in a little bit!

 

[jcolt]

Well I still haven't looked . All flights keep getting canceled because of the Canadian fires, so I don't end up at the airport!

 

[jcolt]

Well not good.. I seem to be losing fluid...One reservoir went completely dry this weekend.Other is slower. I don't have a parking brake. There is a handle, but it's not attached to anything.

 

[jcolt]

Hard to describe the pictures, I should have made a power point! Fluid seems to be coming out near the caliper. Not sure exactly where. Does the hole in the fill cap seem appropriate? I have to order new brake pads as well.

 

[Gilbert Pierce]

That hole in the plug is a vent. It is necessary. When you press the brake down the area on top of piston gets bigger and fills with air. When you release the brake a spring pushes the piston back up and the area behind it you pulled in air to when you pressed the brake is expended back out that vent.

 

[jcolt]

Understood, I put a 1/32" hole in. Not sure what the factory part requires...

 

[Steve Pierce]

Fluid seems to be coming out near the caliper.

Probably leaking around the o'rings on the caliper pistons. Look in the parts manual for an illustration.

 

[jcolt]

Thanks, I'm onto rebuilding the calipers. Any idea what Gerdes brake system in accordance with Bulletin 1053, dated October 28th, 1976 is? It was a pain to figure out what the rebuild kits for the master cylinder was...