Chapter 13 - Step 7

This step involves mounting the brake cylinders to the fuselage and the rudder pedals.

January 30, 2003. Here are the two brake cylinder mounts. I made these similar to those shown in Newsletter 64. They are made from 1" x 1/8" aluminum channel. A #10 hole has been drilled for the AN3 bolt that will hold the cylinder. I am using the Matco laydown cylinders. There are also two holes drilled in the bottom of each mount to give the flox something to hold onto.

Mounted Mounts January 31, 2003. After measuring the best location for the cylinder mounts I simply floxed them to the nose bottom and added a 2-ply BID tape. My calculations for the location are based on the fact that the "sliders" allow the pedals to move about 3/4" before the brake cylinder is engaged. I've been told that the brake cylinders move about 1" for full braking so this gave me 1 3/4". I rounded up to 2". My setup is such that the pilot's left pedal is more forward than the co-pilot's right pedal so the pilot's pedal is more likely to impact the nose sidewall if allowed to move too far forward. With this in mind and the 2" measurement, I was able to select the location for the cylinder mount.

Brain Fart time. The next day I checked how things were by trying to install the brake cylinders to the mounts (now freshly glued and secured in place) and the rudder pedals. The right side is fine but I really screwed up the pilot side. I installed the mount a little crooked so the cylinder, when attached to the mount, points away from the rudder pedal. I have two options to fix this. 1) Remove the mount and reinstall it correctly. This will be hard because the flox and BID tape are dry. 2) Redrill one of the two bolt holes in the mount. This should be easier except I can't get a drill in place to do it.

September 26, 2003. Close up of crooked mount - so how do I remove this?

Update: Eventually I removed this mount by using a dremel to cut through the bid tape. I then used a hair drier to heat the bracket and flox. After lots of heat and prying with a chisel, I was able to get the bracket off. Problem was I crushed some of the foam from the prying action. I drilled some small holes in the glass and used a syringe to squirt epoxy into the damaged foam. I then refloxed the mount and added more BID tape. This time I put the cylinder in place on the mount and pedal to ensure the mount was aligned properly.

Matco Resevoirs September 29, 2003. The Matco brake fluid reservoirs. I made nut plates to mount these on the aft face of F-5 near the top.