Cleveland Wheels

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
34,740
Display Name
Display name:
Tom-D
when was the last time you had them stripped and cleaned to inspect for corrosion? they are Magnesium.
 

Attachments

  • 20160715_131848.jpg
    20160715_131848.jpg
    138.4 KB · Views: 70
  • 20160716_081930.jpg
    20160716_081930.jpg
    159.9 KB · Views: 72
I have seen much worse than that, especially around the bearing races on the inside of the wheel. In there it's caused by water getting into the bearings and wheel cavity when someone sprays water at the hub when washing the airplane. Those felt seals are next to useless at keeping water out. The water mixes with the oil from the grease and forms acids that eat the wheel, whether it's magnesium or aluminum. Cleveland has used both metals in their wheels.
 
Yup, and using a good syn greese helps, greasing them more often helps too.
 
Won't matter much if the plane is getting lots of hours and the grease/water and crud in with the grease is only getting done at annuals
 
Tom-D said:
cleaning and re-preserving them works better.
Click to expand...
Yup. Got to get all the old, water-contaminated grease out. I never understood the idea of grease nipples on some wheels.

They're little different than boat trailer wheels, except for the aluminum or magnesium that corrode so much quicker. Every summer around here you see boat trailers parked along the side of the highway with a wheel missing--the wheel, hub, bearings, all gone, and the spindle ground halfway off by the pavement. Backing the trailer into the water usually sucks water past the seal or cap into the rapidly-cooling hub, and then the drive home mixes it real good. It sits over the winter and the bearings get rusty and pitted and fail sooner or later and spoil someone's holiday trip. Bearing Buddies don't make much difference, either. The newer oil-filled hubs are way better. They have decent, tight seals.
 
Aerocet has sealed bearings, might be something worth looking into
 
Dan Thomas said:
Yup. Got to get all the old, water-contaminated grease out. I never understood the idea of grease nipples on some wheels.

They're little different than boat trailer wheels, except for the aluminum or magnesium that corrode so much quicker. Every summer around here you see boat trailers parked along the side of the highway with a wheel missing--the wheel, hub, bearings, all gone, and the spindle ground halfway off by the pavement. Backing the trailer into the water usually sucks water past the seal or cap into the rapidly-cooling hub, and then the drive home mixes it real good. It sits over the winter and the bearings get rusty and pitted and fail sooner or later and spoil someone's holiday trip. Bearing Buddies don't make much difference, either. The newer oil-filled hubs are way better. They have decent, tight seals.
Click to expand...
Bearings are easy and cheap to replace, but the wheel its self isn't.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/lgpages/600x6wheel.php?clickkey=4112
the 5" is near a grand.
 
Cleveland started using proper polymer seals a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen them on all their wheels yet. Just the ones that have an axle straight through, like nosewheels and amphib wheels. The seal gets wrecked while getting the bearings out. I don't know what they do--if they have anything yet--for the mains that use axle nuts.

Edit: they do have the seals for the mains. https://www.parker.com/literature/Aircraft Wheel & Brake Division/Product Reference Memos/PRM95.pdf

Almost four years ago already.
 
Last edited:
Tom-D said:
when was the last time you had them stripped and cleaned to inspect for corrosion? they are Magnesium.
Click to expand...


certainly near the top of "most neglected parts" list. A lot of Cleveland brake calipers (wheel cylinders) are magnesium too.
 
The data tag, surprisingly still on it, shows that this cleveland brake was manufactured in 1967, it has roughly 1800 hours on it. Per the Cleveland manual, this p/n is magnesium.

The piston bore was essentially free of any corrosion pitting.

 
I just stripped mine and repainted them on my last annual. I impressed myself at how good they look, then I promptly covered them up with wheel pants.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I just stripped mine and repainted them on my last annual. I impressed myself at how good they look, then I promptly covered them up with wheel pants.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with mine last year at annual time. The nice thing about the original paint is that it is just standard acrylic lacquer, and dropping the whole caliper into a quart paint can of lacquer thinner for about 15 minutes make them come out shiny clean metal. Easy to inspect and repaint (with a rattle can of bright white acrylic lacquer--of course!) and reinstall with new hardware and seals. Easy home project that costs very little... I don't remember how much the pins were when I looked them up, but I suspect that might be a part that could get sent out to the cad plating shop rather than replace...
 
thomasdr72 said:
I did the same thing with mine last year at annual time. The nice thing about the original paint is that it is just standard acrylic lacquer, and dropping the whole caliper into a quart paint can of lacquer thinner for about 15 minutes make them come out shiny clean metal. Easy to inspect and repaint (with a rattle can of bright white acrylic lacquer--of course!) and reinstall with new hardware and seals. Easy home project that costs very little... I don't remember how much the pins were when I looked them up, but I suspect that might be a part that could get sent out to the cad plating shop rather than replace...
Click to expand...

The steel pins appear to be zinc plated. No real corrosion on the OD that was pressed into the magnesium cylinders.
 
Sweet! I was too chicken to try and pull the pins... But everything got assembled back with brand new cad plated bolts! They complimented my brand new brake lines nicely...
 
Watch the torque on those caliper bolts. 75 inch-pounds or so. Too much stretches the bolt and it can crack and fail right when you need the brakes.

Cleveland's manuals are online, with the torque specs for brake and wheel bolts, and minimum thicknesses for discs and linings. I sometimes find discs worn well below minima.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top