1967 427

I guess I am tainted by how crappy the engraving looks in my plane. Looks like it was done by a prisoner using his shiv as an engraving tool instead of shanking another prisoner.

Powder paint and silkscreening looks even better

Agreed. I wonder if it might be more prudent to be in discussions with aeromotors LLC out of Wisconsin

Of course marketing inflated the numbers, that’s what they do. If we all believed what the marketing department was throwing out there, we would sell our Mooney’s and buy a Cirrus. They have this remarkable system that will save everyone on board. Oh wait the parachute was a necessity due to its inability to recover from a spin.

And I highly expect that the brushes and bearings are automotive standards or easily accessible off the shelf standards. Usually the only component that fails in an automotive idler pulley on a serpentine system is the $13 bearing. I enjoy the challenge of disassembling, figuring out bearing size and sourcing it. Anybody can just go and purchase the $65 replacement idler assembly.

OK, I have to ask, how does that happen. I read preliminary and final FAA accident reports so I don’t make the same mistakes others may have. Even Mooney space is all about learning. I regularly help my mechanic do my annuals, and we place my aircraft on jacks that I made. We each work a main wing jack simultaneously calling out each pump so we stay in unison. After about four pumps on the wings, we move to the nose and lift it up (via cherry picker) to maintain a level condition. The main wing jacks are raised until a safety pin can be installed. Once the pin is installed the hydraulic jack is slow released to put load onto the pins and not the hydraulics. I have reviewed our procedure many times thru my head to try and think if we’re missing anything that might make it safer. If you know please share how the aircraft fell off the jacks.

Since I was at the airport today I snapped a couple of photos of mine, specifically of the spacers that I mentioned in a previous post on this string. The blue is heat shrink tubing, which makes them easier to install and less likely for me to lose.

If R&R, the cowling was his first and only response, he obviously didn’t have to manufacture any shielding or other components. I would definitely call him to the carpet on this one.

I don’t have a good image of mine, but I have a spaces in front of and behind the ball joint on the door side. Looking at the image it looks as if the front bracket is bent and you have 2 washers as spacers on the rear and on the front the 2 washers are not being used as spacers as they are not between the bracket and ball joint. With the spacers installed there is no play between the door and the lower ball joint. This alone could be the main source of slop. (My spacers look like 4 small pieces of tubing, 2 in front and 2 behind, they are small, each is about 3/16 in length) small trick, I would always have to search for one when I would disassemble, I installed heat shrink tubing around the 2 pairs. Now it goes together with ease, and if I drop one of the spacer packs the blue heat shrink stand out on the ground.

First of all, congratulations on your new to you Mooney. I myself have not used TopGun since my pre purchase/ annual. BUT I highly suggest using them for a very detailed examination. I was given a beautiful report that listed everything they could find. Not all of these items needed addressing at the moment but things for me to keep my eyes on. I had them address all squawks that needed immediate attention, but now a has a Christmas List generated for my wife, and myself. I prefer to be part of the annual process to stay informed, I have used multiple different AI’s in the past (I appreciate fresh eyes). Always good to get another’s perspective. For the last couple of years I have used the same gentleman, why, I find him to be on the top of his game. Again just my $0.02

I am now obsessed with that rubber. The skins are from a later model like F’s and J’s, and it is difficult to see from the pictures, but it doesn’t look like a full length rudder like on F’s or J’s. It looks like the lower section is fixed. Can that be a field approval? 337? Or a mechanic that says, “shhh it will be fine.”?

Good eye!

In my opinion, “ putting a more modern system in” is a minimum of 30k.

The first Mooney I fell in love with was a 67 F and it was,( what I thought) a great price. The owner was super to work with, but I was raised to trust but verify. Since I live in Northern California I had access to 2 well known MSC. I told the owner that I wanted to get a per purchase inspection that I could then turn into an annual. Results of the annual were to run as quickly as possible from this plane. It cost me about 2k to get this information but money well spent in the long run. I gave the pre purchase inspection report to the owner even though I was mine since I paid for it, but it served no more purpose to me. After the owner read the report, he called me back slashing the price even further, but I didn’t want to buy something that I wasn’t going to be able fly for some time, and the costs of getting things squared away were opened ended and I may have had to spend more than it was worth. M20A’s take a special owner, one that wants to preserve history, I am that type of guy, but I also prefer to fly. Know that up front.

I suspect that the vernatherm is headed south. They don’t always open correctly when they start to fail.

Also, in an attempt to keep your oil system as sterile as possible. I would replace all the hoses have the oil cooler overhauled, IRAN on the prop governor and prop inspected and cleaned.

I understand that the gear sets are not eligible to be produced under the Vintage Aircraft Replacement and Modification Article (VARMA) program, and please forgive me if I am missing something here. I suspect that the gears themselves are the easy part, they are probably standard off-the-shelf (from Boston Gears) or one of the many manufacturers. The assumable difficult part would be one or many of the unique shafts that were probably custom designed and were outsourced by Mooney. Aeromotors in Wisconsin already has reversed, engineered and manufactured shafts for fuel pumps. Shafts and bearings are already right up their alley. Wouldn’t be a big leap for them to source gear sets, and overhaul these as an another line of business for them. Just my two cents from a C owner.

He gets a tip after every annual. As in every profession there are guys that graduated with the mentality of “C’s get degrees”, and there are guys that take pride in their profession and their work. I’m just glad that I got a guy that cares about every part of his job. And no he doesn’t read or follow mooneyspace, not a suck up post. And I can say that I feel like my regular doctor just barely got her degree so I don’t use her for my medical exam. I suspect she was a C student.

One would have to assume that damage could only happen to a stainless steel exhaust pipe that was so highly polished, it looked like chrome.

I agree with Andy about acidic gases, but I suspect the main reason they vent the air box is H2 gas. Hydrogen gas is a byproduct of a charging battery and a sealed battery according to Google isn’t completely truly sealed. “While called "sealed," aircraft batteries are not completely sealed in the sense that they have no vents; they are designed to contain the electrolyte and prevent leaks under normal operation, but may have small pressure relief valves that can release gas if the battery becomes overcharged or experiences extreme conditions”. I remember as a kid the comment that you should always charge a battery in a well ventilated area due to the byproduct of hydrogen gas. I always thought that was ridiculous, until I actually had a small explosion under the hood of my friend’s car. I assumed there was a small arc at the battery terminal and the hydrogen under the hood ignited. (FYI, my friend didn’t believe me when I told him about the explosion)

I was originally going to state that it could be D3 or D4, but after looking at the circuit again, if D3 failed, D4 should keep the current from flowing back.

Forgot one more thing, GO Green Bay!

Retired ME but during my career I would say that I ended up getting a minor in EE. As you stated the LED’s required millivolts to operate and after looking at the circuit, I highly suspect electrical leakage in the switch itself. I would hit the switch with contact cleaner in an attempt to wash out the dust and dirt that maybe conducting enough current to lightly illuminate it. Again just my first guess, and no help with the KX155.

About 10 years ago I decided to make my own jack stands and over the years they have seen a lot of use. Yes I could have purchased jacks, but where is the challenge or fun in that. I admit the design was not my own, but when I saw it, I thought how simplistic and really safe, as they don’t rely on hydraulic pressure to hold them up. Recently my neighbor 2 hangars down showed me his new Meyer jack stands, and offered to loan them to me if I needed. It made me think “Hey WTF is wrong with mine!?”, of course that was kept inside my head. His offer made me look at my jacks and realized that I never really finished the job. The jacks that I used still had some of their original paint and my welds along with the raw steel I used had surface rust. They definitely were missing a coat of paint and looked like some shade tree mechanic made them on his lunch break. What I love about them is that after jacking up the plane I insert the pin thru the hole and lower the jack until the load is no longer relying on the hydraulics.