New M20J owner -- brakes and maintenance options for San Diego

[Yetti]

If you need more braking don't forget about dynamic braking.  Pull the yoke into your lap.  It helps.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, kortopates said:

Thanks for sharing.  These advertise like they could be an improvement over the others - any comments or opinions on their performance?

And still economical although sold in packs of 10. 

Hi Paul,

We have been switching over to them over the last year, no complaints so far.

Clarence

[cliffy]

Mooney brakes are engineered to stop fine IF maintained properly. Its a very simple system. 

You say the Master cylinder was changed? Which one? Or both, as there are two, one for each pedal. Actually 4 with copilot brakes. 

Are your pedals hard or are they real soft and spongy? If hard, something other than bleeding is required.

As mentioned , 5606 turns to jelly in the wheel cylinders after time. Even bleeding won't remove the jelly. You have to disassemble the wheel cylinders, clean out the jelly and reassemble with a new oring after smoothing the  cylinder with 320 wet/dry paper. 

How old are the brake hoses? They might be so old they are dry, brittle or swollen inside. Change them out. Any A&P worth his salt can make new hoses using the old fittings.

If you want to change the pads get the Rapco T screw rivet squeezer. Much better than the hammer model. 

Make sure the pins that slide into the opposite housing on the wheel cylinders are clean and smooth (320 paper again).

When you go to bleed them again I go top down. Remember, with copilot brakes there are 2 shuttle valves in the system so that only one person can apply brakes at the same time. When you go to bleed the copilot side you will need to "shuttle" the valve over to the other side with the copilot pedals before any fluid will flow from the copilot brake system.  You do it by pressing on the copilot pedals but sometimes it takes some effort to do it.

Mine stops fine

Hope this helps

[jetdriven]

Mine has dual brakes but no shuttle valve. They’re plumbed in series. 

[kortopates]

9 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

Mine has dual brakes but no shuttle valve. They’re plumbed in series. 

Yeah, I can't say what year Mooney dropped the shuttle valves but only the vintage birds used them and thus doesn't apply to J's and later. All the modern ones plumbed the MC's in series which keeps it simple IMO. Still a bitch to bleed though if air gets trapped between the MC's

Edited March 11, 2018 by kortopates

[jetdriven]

The brakes are a freaking nightmare I probably spent a total of four or five full days trying to bleed the brakes over the course of 2 years.  I never could get them right. But what I did try last time and totally just because I changed this wheel cylinder, I wanted to get the brakes bled enough to taxi or whatever. I tried bleeding them like a car from the right side top down and believe it or not it’s almost completely fixed it. 

Edited March 11, 2018 by jetdriven

[cliffy]

Mine is a 64 with a factory alteration for dual brakes. Its a Bi(whatever) to bleed.