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To follow up on this, I had the avionics shop clean up all the contacts to see if corrosion could be the culprit...it often is here by the Atlantic coast. But in this case, no such luck...the unit appears to be Tango Uniform. I talked to EI and they said they had a core exchange program where they would charge half-price for a new unit. That makes a new unit $350 ($700 x 1/2). I'm still deciding what I want to do. In the meantime I just have it marked INOP.

The gfc500 includes it. There may be another way via an old stc, but that’s not likely available or supportable to install. If you do an autopilot such as the gfc500 it’s an option. Is the airplane new to you? I had an F with manual trim for 10 years and I really liked the manual trim. It’s also (relatively) maintenance free.

Dumb question… have you made sure the cowl flaps are working and opening all the way? I believe there are measurements in the mx manual.

Your 84 M20J is a 14 volt system. And you say it has been in the shop idle for 1.5 years. Did this happen while cranking or immediately after engine started or after bring RPM up? Was the ammeter pegged to full draw the whole time? Was this before he turned the avionics master switch on or after? I always look for the obvious problem first. Was the battery fully charged? You need to observe the voltage and current draw at same time. Low voltage draws more amps. Your battery is in back and most current draw is in front. The power has to flow through relays in back which might be causing voltage drop.

Maybe, but organizing, collecting, and then managing all has to happen, just to see....

The wiring goes from the 50A CB to one side of the switch busbar, then that is jumpered over to the master switch side. If it is tripping with all switches in the off position, then this wire or the busbar itself is shorted to the frame. Or after tripping once, the CB is broken. Aerodon

Mooney is probably kind of one of those standard "Management Teams" where they want their salary which is usually pretty steep, but don't really know how to do real work. The Factory could probably work if there were some get your hands dirty management team that knew how to do real work. An Owner buyout ie crowdsource of the factory, with actual shares in the factory, would be better than this current Owner Assurance plan proposal which looks to be a give us some cash and you might get something in the future plan.

Good luck Dan, should be fairly easy to isolate. Have the mx retrace his work and see if any of it could have caused a short also, which I’m sure he is already doing

Comments I have heard indicate that Mooney did not have the cash to buy the raw materials to produce parts.

The engine can't be overhauled by Western Skyways and be Zero Time. Only the factory can Zero Time an engine. Or did you put in a Zero Time Factory Reman and then had the prop strike that Western Skyways did the IRAN? Well, technically the could designate a shop to do so, but they don't.

While it's true anyone can list anything for any price, this is only a research problem for one-off rarities, and an M20E isn't that kind of airplane. There are no less than 14 of them for sale on Trade-a-Plane right now, and that's only one for-sale site. I don't really get these, "What's it worth" posts, and always wonder if it's a shill for something other than an actual sale. Determining value for anything of which there are a dozen or more posted seems trivial to me. Look at the ads for airworthy airplanes (in annual, flown recently, etc, all easy to determine). Discard the highest one or two as "of course it's for sale" foolishness; discard the lowest one or two as outliers that are likely hiding a surprise; that's still going to leave you with lots of samples. Make some rational adjustments for year model/TTAF/avionics/paint/interior compared to your airplane (doing so is not difficult - engine time on an IO-360 is worth about $3/hour, all the other stuff is worth about half the retail price). Find the average, price yours slightly high or slightly low in accordance with your personal preference on dollars vs. time to sell. Our partnership goes through this exercise every year for insurance valuation. I just did it this weekend: our M20F with decent avionics, decent interior, bad paint, and a runout engine is worth about $80K. The work takes about an hour, maybe two if I search really hard across multiple sites. The answers you get are significantly more useful than asking a bunch of randos on the internet who aren't actually selling their airplanes. This is all Jimmy and other brokers are doing to produce their valuation guides. To be fair, those folks are analyzing all makes & models rather than just one. But they're also not publishing new data every month, at least not in a manner you can subscribe to. Better to do your own market research, and it's just not that hard.

The parts catalogs for most models are available in the downloads section of MooneySpace.

I took operational to mean within regulatory confines, it is operational. a manufacturing certificate is neither easy or cheap to obtain. from a profitability perspective, it is obviously not functioning properly.

GFC-500 (Garmin autopilot) has it automatic if you add the trim servo. Not sure if there is an STC to add the manual version. May need to see if there are any F’s that came from the factory with it… -Don

Fiber-lights - came with the plane when I bought it. The shop re-did my pilot side panel after we discussed locations for the autopilot. New pilots side panel (extra cost) but worth it. We added the carbon fiber overlay so the panel was the same… I have the SWTA windshield/panel so a bit more room and it was already offset. Did give me room for AP. We did have to tweak the defroster a bit to gain a half inch of room but she fits. Wanted to keep the StormScope - still works well. -Don

In my M20K, the electric trim is part of the autopilot.

Is there an STC out there to add an electric trim on an F model? Thanks for your comments Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your last statement is the best approach. Throw all downstream breakers and turn them on one by one until it trips. I know of a Mooney that was converted from a generator to an alternator, but the breaker and wire was not changed. If the battery is quite discharged, the 50 amp alternator will over power the 40 a breaker. This was an older mooney. It was solved by upgrading the wires and breaker. It is possible that the alternator is just surging when you start up. The breakers also "age" the more they trip the weaker they get.

Those fit nice. Some look cramped. You flattened the top of the panel a bit more to the left to provide additional vertical space? What instrument lights or bezels are those?

That would be great. I'll call LASAR today and update this conversation when I know. But it's safe to say they won't have it. Maybe they can give me the specs so I can procure one myself. Just very crudely I was able to compress the spring 1" with about 25lbs of force.

Appreciate the explanation. Trying like heck to understand the purpose of the springs. Having a hard time understanding how they "add additional" force. I could see them providing a force or elevator position that varies with airspeed at any given trim position. There's something tricky I'm missing. Great thread though. I've been curious about the springs; never seen them before this thread.

Almost 1000

Well, finding this 20-203-3 spacer with the current LASAR nuance seems challenging. Anybody have any other leads on this?

Anyone can list anything for any price. You said you saw it listed for 140, but has anyone bought it?

Try @Alan Fox or @Jerry Pressley I may have a spare if they don’t.