Goodyear Brake Pucks - Cheap!

Back about thirty years or so, Cleveland wheels and brakes became popular
replacements for the Goodyear systems on planes like older Cessna 172s.
These used wheel and brake sets often ended up on the homebuilt market.

My own Fly Baby has one of these units. About a year and a half ago, a
through-bolt came loose on one of my wheels and munched the brake puck on
one of my Goodyears. The puck is just a flat little kidney-shaped pad
about an inch across, but I was astounded to find the replacement cost was
about $200, with the only source apparently being Aircraft Spruce.

Being naturally cheap (and recently downsized from my job), I was loath to
pay that much, so I bought a hunk of scrap brake-pad material from the
local auto-brake store and cut my own.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/brake.HTM

Soon after I posted my experiences with that, someone pointed out that
Barry Jay aviation sold the pads for $15. But not long after *that*,
Aircraft Spruce bought out Barry Jay and the $15 pads disappeared.

Last week, though, I happily noticed that ACS is having a Close-Out sale on
the old Barry Jay inventory, and the cheap pads are included!

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/barryjay.php

So if you have Goodyears, you might consider stocking up on brake pads. Be
advised that the price is *per pair*. I ordered what I thought was "A pair
and a spare", and now have eight pads....

Ron Wanttaja

In article ,
Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Back about thirty years or so, Cleveland wheels and brakes became popular
replacements for the Goodyear systems on planes like older Cessna 172s.
These used wheel and brake sets often ended up on the homebuilt market.

My own Fly Baby has one of these units. About a year and a half ago, a
through-bolt came loose on one of my wheels and munched the brake puck on
one of my Goodyears. The puck is just a flat little kidney-shaped pad
about an inch across, but I was astounded to find the replacement cost was
about $200, with the only source apparently being Aircraft Spruce.

Being naturally cheap (and recently downsized from my job), I was loath to
pay that much, so I bought a hunk of scrap brake-pad material from the
local auto-brake store and cut my own.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/brake.HTM

Soon after I posted my experiences with that, someone pointed out that
Barry Jay aviation sold the pads for $15. But not long after *that*,
Aircraft Spruce bought out Barry Jay and the $15 pads disappeared.

Last week, though, I happily noticed that ACS is having a Close-Out sale on
the old Barry Jay inventory, and the cheap pads are included!

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/barryjay.php

So if you have Goodyears, you might consider stocking up on brake pads. Be
advised that the price is *per pair*. I ordered what I thought was "A pair
and a spare", and now have eight pads....

Ron Wanttaja

The real problem with Goodyears is the brake clips -- you need 4 - 6 of
them on each wheel -- they now cost $20 each and wear out regularly.
I guess that Goodyear wanted to get away from the small GA business and
decided to price themselves out of the market.

This is sort of like Grimes, who used to make some nice, low-priced
stuff.

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:20:32 GMT, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:

The real problem with Goodyears is the brake clips -- you need 4 - 6 of
them on each wheel -- they now cost $20 each and wear out regularly.
I guess that Goodyear wanted to get away from the small GA business and
decided to price themselves out of the market.

I've been told I have the "last model" type of Goodyears...only three
clips, and they aren't the little metal nubs most people seem to have.
Mine are spring steel, about 2-3" long, rivet to the outside of the drum,
and have an angle at the end to fit into the brake disk and lock it in
place.

BTW, anybody got a good web site that shows an exploded diagram for
Goodyear brakes?

Ron Wanttaja

OH! for a shop dwg. of one of those new clips!!! or mebby a couple of pics??

Ron Wanttaja wrote:

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 22:20:32 GMT, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:

The real problem with Goodyears is the brake clips -- you need 4 - 6 of
them on each wheel -- they now cost $20 each and wear out regularly.
I guess that Goodyear wanted to get away from the small GA business and
decided to price themselves out of the market.

I've been told I have the "last model" type of Goodyears...only three
clips, and they aren't the little metal nubs most people seem to have.
Mine are spring steel, about 2-3" long, rivet to the outside of the drum,
and have an angle at the end to fit into the brake disk and lock it in
place.

BTW, anybody got a good web site that shows an exploded diagram for
Goodyear brakes?

Ron Wanttaja

On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 01:15:57 -0700, jerry Wass wrote:

Ron Wanttaja wrote:

I've been told I have the "last model" type of Goodyears...only three
clips, and they aren't the little metal nubs most people seem to have.
Mine are spring steel, about 2-3" long, rivet to the outside of the drum,
and have an angle at the end to fit into the brake disk and lock it in
place.

OH! for a shop dwg. of one of those new clips!!! or mebby a couple of pics??

Certainly:

http://www.wanttaja.com/goody1.JPG
http://www.wanttaja.com/goody2.JPG

The first picture is taken from the side, the second one is taken from
above. The spring is bent in a sort of "J" at the end, and the short leg
goes into a square slot in the brake disk that is very similar in
appearance to the normal gear slots.

Note that I've got a screwdriver blade slipped under the spring to flex it
slightly. The springs are pretty stiff. There are three of them on each
wheel, and all three must be held open to get the wheel on or off. I've a
set of tiny oak wedges to do the honors.

I've got ~250 hours on the airplane, and no problems with the springs.

Ron Wanttaja

Ron...

I thought I could help you but when I read that hangar tale about "being told I
have the last issue by....nonsense, I gave up.

But the pictures, the pictures make all the difference.

You have what are known as gear tooth drive discs and matching wheels.

"Gear tooth drive discs are retained by cantilever clips which are a part of
the wheel.

While I take a look at more data, Goodyear wheel and brake became part of
Loral, and then Loral sold it to a company who intended to stay in the business
making the stuff. I have their name, too. But they could care less about you.
They decided on the big wheels are for making money and so stopped anything to
do with the little ones.

I met the lady sales manager several years at the mandated for mechs FAA
meeting where the vendors would put on slide shows and pay for the displays.
She said she would sell all the remaining pucks for our brakes (Cessna 140) at
a cut rate cost. The next meeting....I said what? No, and later the cost was
outrageous. She did impart some useful info. When forced to change from
asbestos based pucks, the next model pucks were terrible. The third generation
were good. Sigh.

I have an old Spruce catalog page which notes the Gear Tooth Drive Disc for the
Bellanca 260, Cessna 172, 175, 180, 182, 210 and Skylane.

The image is 1/6th of a page but all the part numbers are readable and the
parts are listed for the brakes.

The wheels, of course, are not brakes, and I have no info on them.

What, specifically, did you need?

Any further answers will necessitate you telling me how to upload pix as you
did. You have my email address if that is easier.

Has this helped?

Neal

On 13 Jul 2004 05:12:11 GMT, (COUGARNFW) wrote:

Ron...

The wheels, of course, are not brakes, and I have no info on them.

What, specifically, did you need?

Thanks, Neal. Cy Galley sent me the exploded diagram from an old ACS
catalog, and that's really all I needed. Didn't really have a specific
question; just wanted a diagram showing the parts and their relationships
in case I ever *did* have to dissect a brake. It did answer one question I
had-- whether the "thick" Goodyear puck was for yet another model of brake
or was used on the piston side of mine (the latter).

Goodyear apparently made quite a variety of wheel/brake types. A few years
back, I picked up a used tire and Goodyear wheel & brake assembly at a
local fly-in for $5. Thought I'd be able to use it for spare parts...but
it had the round pucks, rather than the kidney-shaped ones mine use.

A month ago, a guy across the hangar row with a Luscombe said he needed a
particular ring for his Goodyear wheels. He had the round-puck type, so I
handed him my old wheel and said "Help yourself." He disassembled it, but
found it didn't match his, either.

Back in December 2002, when I had the brake pad munched, I ran the trapline
looking for replacement pads. I was eventually referred to a guy on the
east coast (believe it was one of the Carolinas) that was supposedly one of
the experts on Goodyear wheel/brakes. He's the guy who told me I had the
"last model" type of Goodyears...the last version of the system before they
stopped making them. Don't know if it's true or not, but they are
apparently less trouble-prone that the run-of-the-mill model.

Ron Wanttaja

Ron...

Not knowing you had enough data, I kept looking for the wheel to match and did
tonight in an old catalog.

I found the three clip arrangement more promising than the smaller clips.

None of us have ever seen your model or the model they made for the 150s, also
"geared" type.

Neal