Jan 08, 2023     Nose wheel pant, more baffling refinement, removing the toe brakes       Category: Landing Gear

I never liked the look of the nose wheel pant, so I removed it. I don't see an easy way to modify it to suit me, so Someday I'll fabricate one out of sheet aluminum. Removal involved jacking up the front of the airplane and pulling the nose wheel strut.

I spied a leak in the baffling so I installed another little sheet stock patch.

Then I wrapped the other exhaust pipe with header wrap, secured with stainless steel ty-raps.

Then I started pulling off the toe brakes. Found some odd details. Parts are on order to replace them with a single master.

  Jul 07, 2021     Bleed Right Hand Landing Gear Brake One More Time. - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira and Bill Lawrence bled the right hand brake one more time to remove an air bubble that developed overnight. All seems to be good now and the brake pedal linkage was reinstalled.

  Jul 06, 2021     Bleeding Landing Gear Brakes Again To Remove Air Bubbles - (6 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira, Bill Lawrence and Ryan Young bled brake lines again to remove bubbles that formed since last brake bleeding procedure. Letting system sit overnight to check for bubbles the next day.

  Feb 14, 2021     Adjust Wheel Bearings - (3 hours) Category: Landing Gear

After awaiting the arrival of the correct size cotter pins, Bill Lawrence jacked up plane, adjusted wheel bearings and installed correct size cotter pins.

  Feb 10, 2021     Bleeding Landing Gear Brakes - (6 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira and Bill Lawrence disconnected line to fuel tank and relocated tank for access to brake master cylinders, shimmed right hand brake master cylinder rod for proper motion, bled both brakes and reinstalled fuel tank. Lee improvised a hand sprayer tank to use for a pressure brake bleeder. It worked well!

  Feb 02, 2021     Install Brake Line Fittings On Wheels, Reassemble Wheel Assembies And Form Brake Line Tubes - (5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira and Bill Lawrence modified one brake line fitting to fit properly, installed fittings on wheel cylinders, reassembled wheel assemblies and fabricated brake lines at wheels.

  Jan 31, 2021     Continue Work On Replacing Brake Line At Wheel Cylinder - (9 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira, Tracy Peters and Bill Lawrence removed both wheels and brake assemblies to access angled fitting at wheel cylinder to replace with correct aviation fitting. Repacked wheel bearing prior to reassembly.

  Jan 20, 2021     Continue Work On Brake Lines - (6 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira and Bill Lawrence, after securing necessary fitting for R/H brake line connector, completed connecting brake lines for both sides, relocated fuel tank to access brake master cylinders and began brake line bleeding process.

  Jan 17, 2021     Complete One Brake Line - (1 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira flared the necessary brake line for the L/H brake assembly and completed the installation on that side. Progress on the R/H side was delayed due to lack of a necessary fitting.

  Jan 13, 2021     Begin Work On Adding Metal Brake Line At Brake Wheel Cylinder - (6 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira and Bill Lawrence began work on adding metal brake lines at brake wheel cylinders to isolate plastic brake line from heat generated by braking. Fittings, line and flaring tools were procured and both practiced flaring tubing in advance of fabricating final product. Upon removing previous plastic line connection it was discovered the connection was missing the inner metal tube inside plastic line used for reinforcement. Progress halted until metal tube can be procured prior to next work day.

  Sep 20, 2020     Bleeding Landing Gear Brakes - (3 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Lee Teicheira, Ryan Young and Bill Lawrence bleed landing gear brake system.

Ryan here in 2023 - if I had it to do over, I would NOT use hydraulic toe brakes. Bleeding them is a NIGHTMARE. The master cylinder is way up under the tank, and the glare shield and the windscreen. Here we are bleeding them without any of that in place, and it still took 4 tries and 2-3 people each time to get them bubble free, and they did not stay that way. If you MUST have hydraulic brakes, go with a single master, pull to brake system, as I eventually did, this is standard on the B models. The original Azusa mechanicals were NEVER INTENDED to hold the Airplane on a full power runup, but they do slow the plane up to make the next taxiway, and work fine at walking speed. John M. was always about simple, cheap, and light.