JPI EDM 900-930 INSTALLATION & FUEL SENDERS
I recently had a JPI EDM 900 installed in my 82, M20J and decided to write a report on the unit, problems with installation and or glitches with the unit and solutions to these problems which will I hope help save others money in installation hours as well as make the unit a better/more accurate fuel on board monitor.
It all started when we decided to upgrade my old analog gauges for a more up to date digital system.
It's the 1st of a 3 part process to convert my plane to a glass cockpit. Part 2 is going from 430W to IFD 540 (which will be done the latter part of this month) and the last part will be the introduction of an Evolution 1000 (which will do away with the steam gauges).
Well, the install went well until my mechanic got to the fuel tank calibration. He struggled with it for hours, called JPI for help, had them send out a new black box (transducer). which didn't help till finally they told him that he needed to check the planes 4 fuel senders to see if they had flat spots on them. The conclusion was that the senders needed replaced and would resolve the problem.
Well, when my mechanic told me that, I immediately turned to mooney space for answers and sure enough as usually, go my answer. I spoke with Scott (fuellevel) at CIES and he explained to me what the problem was (analog senders don’t send out a continual pulse, but rather an intermittent one) the new digital senders send out a continual pulse and were designed to remedy the problem we were getting. After a quick talk with Scott on the matter, I asked him to speak to my mechanic about the digital senders to see if he was in agreement with the issue and solution suggested.
My mechanic called me back saying that the problems he was having with the analog senders (the intermittent sending of pulses) were exactly what Scott had confirmed and that he (my mechanic) was going to speak to JPI to see if the new senders were indeed compatible with the EDM 900 series.
The answer is they are, so I ordered them through Scott (fuellevel) and the problem was resolved shortly thereafter. I now have my plane back with accuracy down to about a gallon of what the EDM 900 says they are.
An expensive lesson for me, I assure you (a mechanics time isn’t cheap), so I wanted to pass it on to other Mooney owners who are considering the purchase of a EDM. I can’t speak for the other systems available out there, but I can say that the digital fuel level sensor was the answer to our calibration problem.