John,

You’ll not have any problem with flow rate using tubing down to about 1/16” ID--well less than you are considering. The actual fluid flow at brake application is almost nil. You can actually calculate it by measuring the change in volume of the brake actuator (My estimate: about 2 square inches of surface, moving less than 1/16” during brake application) over the brake application time--hopefully not less than 1 second?  Bottom line, it’s a very small amount of fluid being shuttled back and forth.

 

On my IV-P, I replaced the nylaflow lines in the gear legs with 3/16” Teflon w/stainless braided cover, and left the Nylaflow in the cockpit area. At 1200 hours TT, I’ve not had any problems at all with the braking system.

 

In addition to rupturing under high heat, Nylaflow is prone to “kinking” damage. I helped an IV-P owner that had kinked his brake lines during construction and thought they were OK once he straightened them out again…although you could see the deformation and discoloration (the tubing changes from translucent to white where kinked). If you ever kink/bend any of this tubing too much, it’s time to put it immediately in the scrap pile.

 

Bob

 

 

Since I'll be replacing all the brake components on my L-235, I figure I might as well replace the 27 y.o. nylon tubing as well. So now the question becomes: should I use the "standard" (.030) wall thickness Nylaflow tubing rated at 1,000 PSI burst pressure, or the "high-burst" (.040) wall thickness Nylaflow, rated at 2,500 PSI burst pressure. Lancair still sells the "standard", but Aircraft Spruce sells both varieties. I ordered two 18" Russell SS/Teflon motorcycle brake hoses to connect to the brake pucks, but plan to use the Nylaflow tubing the rest of the way forward to the master cylinders. Will I get enough flow through the thicker-wall tubing? Anybody have any thoughts?Thanks in advance...