Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on February 9, 2022 at 3:33am

Where would you mount the two cylinders and how would this work? I can’t tell from the photo.  

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Permalink Reply by Arnie Minear on February 9, 2022 at 7:16am

The cylinders mount in the normal spot on the empty ears of the pilot side brake pedals.  They are ganged to the co-pilot side through the the bottom levers attached to a 3/8" tube running inside the rudder pedal 5/8" tubes.

After I get the master cylinders (zenith has these on backorder) i will take some more pictures.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on February 9, 2022 at 10:24pm

That should work well for you. It was done in many airplanes over the years and was a very popular way to set up dual brakes during the 50's and earlier. My 1948 Stinson has that exact same setup except the torque tube carrying the brake pedal motion from one side to the other is outside the rudder pedal interconnect tube. You say yours is inside the rudder connect tube. Either way it should work fine. As i say my Stinson has it and so did the 1958 Cessna 175 I used to own - the right side brakes were mechanically interconnected to the left side and only the left side had master cylinders.

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Permalink Reply by Arnie Minear on February 10, 2022 at 7:21am

Thanks Bob,  that is good to know, not breaking new ground if it was done in the 50's and earlier.

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Permalink Reply by Arnie Minear on July 5, 2022 at 12:32pm

Not sure if this video will work here, but got the cylinder installed and tested now.

the link above will download a video to see the operation,  works from my computer.

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Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on July 8, 2022 at 11:49am

That looks great! Zenith should offer that as an option.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Heiting on July 9, 2022 at 6:37am

Thanks for the pic. and video.

Great job. Can you provide Some kind of materials list and procedure ?

Looking forward to the project !

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Permalink Reply by Arnie Minear on July 9, 2022 at 6:41pm

It is fairly simple,  I used 3/8"" steel tubing for the rod that goes inside each existing pedal assembly.

Each 3/8" rod has 2 nylon bushings to hold it centered in the pedal assembly.

I cut out of 1/8" aluminum sheet 2 new foot pedals, they have two ears (one to transfer motion to the co-pilot side, and the other to operate the brake cylinder)  These I bent after annealling, they will form cracks if not annealed.

then 4 levers to attach to the rods,  one end is welded on each rod, the other end is welded to a hub and drilled and pinned.  Note 1 of the levers needs to be a curved piece to fit over the top of the opposite pedal assembly.

Lastly 4 shafts with heim joints or forked rod ends to connect the levers to the pedals.

the only modification that needs to be done to the existing equipment is to drill a hole in one end of each pedal assembly to insert the rod,  this is probably the most difficult part,  I built a jig to ensure I had the hole centered in the end. 

As far as weight goes, it probably is about the same as if I installed additional cylinders and tubing/fittings.

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