#1 Old Fashion Oil Chan & Flex Hose
This method did not work for me. This is where you take an old school oil can, attach a short length of flexible hose. Then attach the flexible hose to the brake housing (located at the aircraft wheel).
#2 Pressure Pot Home Made
This method includes a pump up weed sprayer, a few barb fittings, and clear tubing. These items can be found at most hardware stores. Make sure to get the tube ID so it fits snug on the brake bleeder valve. I’ve gotten this method to work, but I had to go back in the cockpit and open up fittings near the brake actuator lines to release air bubbles.
3 thoughts on “Piper Brake Bleeding”
It sounds like you are describing a plane only having one brake pedal for each wheel brake and a hand brake, so an aircraft with only three brake cylinders. In my case the aircraft has five brake cylinders, so I would open the left bleed fitting and pump pilot’s left pedal, copilot’s left pedal, hand brake, repeat until firm, close the bleed fitting on the left brake, open the bleed on the right brake, and then pump right pilot’s pedal, right copilot’s pedal, hand brake, repeat until firm, and close the right brake bleed valve?
Hey mike! Hope all is well your way. It has been a while since I’ve bled a piper with toe brakes on pilot & co-pilot sides. I believe their is a shuttle valve located between the brakes. When a user presses the brakes (pilot or co-pilot) this valve will isolate the pedals being pressed from the other set of pedals (So it acts as one set of pedals when being pressed). If it were me I would hook up tubing from brake to reservoir for one side. Then use the handbrake and bleed (watch for air bubbles to stop in the clear tubing, keep reservoir full). Once you stop seeing air bubbles close the bleed valve and check how the pedal for that side feels (both co-pilot and pilot positions). If its good repeat for the other side. If one of the positions isn’t good (pilot or co-pilot) then tap that brake to shuttle the shuttle valve to open that positions hydraulic circuit, and try bleeding again with the handbrake… I know if you can’t get them to bleed this way sometimes the seals in the hand pump or the brake actuators (in the cockpit) need replaced. Let us know how you do!
Hi again. I’ve finished a first test flight after installing rebuild kits in the four main gear master cylinders and also the hand brake master cylinder in my 1974 Piper Archer. The four pedal master cylinders were fairly easy to access as the main body of the cylinders stayed attached to the airplane and only the brake pistons were removed for seal replacement. The hardest part of the rebuild operation was compressing the piston return spring to install a washer and the roll pin that held the return spring in place. Harbor Freight has replacement roll pins and a spring loaded punch to drive the roll pin into the piston rod.
The hand master cylinder is a horse of a different color! The entire master cylinder assembly had to be removed from the airplane and pulled apart on the bench.
I disassembled each master cylinder in a large cardboard box lined with a clean sheet and with a clean paper towel on the sheet. That kept everything clean and kept all the parts in one place during disassembly and reassembly. It also helped contain any part that tried to run away during the process!
Once all the brake master cylinders were back on the airplane and reattached to the rudder pedals or the parking brake handle, along with the parking brake reattached to the input hose from the brake fluid reservoir and the output high pressure hose to the brake system, I latched the parking brake handle into it’s full aft position. Then I refilled the brake fluid reservoir and left a small funnel and a dip stick in the top of the reservoir and attached the bleed hose to the brake bleed fitting on the left brake and ran the other end to an empty quart brake fluid container I could see from the cockpit. The bottle was propped appropriately so it wouldn’t tip over. I opened the bleed valve 1 and 1/2 turns and then pumped about 20 strokes on the parking brake and watched the bubbles go by, got out and checked and refilled the reservoir, repeating until no more bubbles were coming from the left brake. Then I closed off the left bleed fitting and repeated the procedure on the right brake.
Once on each side made all 5 brake controls rock hard. I’ve never felt my brakes operate so well before!
Comments are closed.