Braided Stainless Steel Brake Lines ?

Gillie

Gillie

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 15, 2019
Messages
201
Location
Roundup , MT
I need to get a pair of brake lines (airframe - brake ) made to run outside of the old style steel 8GCBC main spring gear .
I much prefer the braided stainless .
looking for recommendations of a fab shop you Fellas are using .
Thanks
 
I think any local A&P can fabricate those, no? A local shop here did a set of short stainless braided hoses at the bottom of a 172's gear legs.
 
My '77 has a hole drilled right down through the aluminum gear leg. I do not miss those ugly aluminum lines. Braided would have been even uglier.
 
I think braided saved my life when I had a port side gear failure and the tire/wheel assy with 1/2 of the spring gear jumped up , came thru the port side window plexiglass and hit me in the head . Only the brake line stopped it from knockin my head off . I dont care about pretty . I like braided stainless steel .
 
The 7series spring gear has been known to fail . If you try a www search a few should pop up . Mine failed because some unknown moron spot welded the fueling step on each side of the step clamp . Gear broke clear across to ea spot weld .Never noticed that until after .
NTSB/faa inspectors determined , due to slightly visible corrosion at the failure that the gear leg had been fractured for some time before complete failure . I could take some picts and post them if interested but not much to see except a gear leg snapped in two
 
Yeah, yikes! His IA should have caught that. You cannot weld on spring steel and not heat treat afterward. Bolt those steps on.
The blame should have been placed on those welds, not the gear leg. A ground loop on a spring steel leg will produce a pretzel, but the leg itself will stay in one piece.
 
Gillie said:
The 7series spring gear has been known to fail . If you try a www search a few should pop up . Mine failed because some unknown moron spot welded the fueling step on each side of the step clamp . Gear broke clear across to ea spot weld .Never noticed that until after .
NTSB/faa inspectors determined , due to slightly visible corrosion at the failure that the gear leg had been fractured for some time before complete failure . I could take some picts and post them if interested but not much to see except a gear leg snapped in two
Click to expand...

I have heard of many gear collapses due to the old style U Bolts failing. That was the #1 fix on my list after I got my Decathlon last year. Yours is the first I have heard of the actual gear leg breaking, but clearly that was due to some extreme mechanical malpractice. Mine were pretty badly sprung, so I installed a reconditioned set of gear legs from Rainbow Ron about 11 months ago.
 
Bob Turner said:
Yeah, yikes! His IA should have caught that. You cannot weld on spring steel and not heat treat afterward. Bolt those steps on.
The blame should have been placed on those welds, not the gear leg. A ground loop on a spring steel leg will produce a pretzel, but the leg itself will stay in one piece.
Click to expand...

blame was placed squarely on the welds .
steps were bolted .
Old time ag applicator and rag & tube IA did prebuy and subsequent maint .
the tack/ spot welds were barely visible and painted over .
I am aware of 7 series gear legs failing at the bend outboard of the ubolt .
 
Last edited:
Gillie said:
I am aware of 7 series gear legs failing at the bend outboard of the ubolt .
Click to expand...

That makes sense, since that would seem to be where most of the mechanical stress is concentrated. Long lever arm applying both upward and torsional force against a rigid fulcrum combined with a sharp bend in the metal.

Wonder if any of the new aluminum gear have failed, or if they will start to fail at some point?
 
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