BrianW

I'd still love to know how others faired. I've read some spending thousands on the fully adjustable seat base. My manual setting is reclined enough that I have the urge to fly my plane with my arm hanging out the storm window! :-D (yes,that was a low rider reference!) ;-)

Hi Yetti! I posted two topic questions at the same time. Your response somehow ended up in this question's thread. But I replied to you in the correct (my 2nd) thread.

All chain and belt drives have tightening mechanisms. Belts and chains stretch over time. Over time one has to adjust to keep things properly tight. Eventually when they stretch to some point, then they get replaced. But how is it adjusted on the mooney trim wheel chain? Thanks BrianW☺

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yetti said, The chain is all of 6 inches long. If you have slack you may want to pull it all apart and look for worn cogs. I would think you need to check all the rods and u joints if you have that much slack. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi Yetti, It can't all be worn sprockets. The chain is very loose. If it were on a bicycle it would be falling off. The slack is just in the chain between the trim wheel sprocket and the sprocket below deck. The u-jounts are all tight with no slop. With such a superbly engineered aircraft, I would be shocked if there was no tensioner for a chain drive (even a bicycle have an adjustment to tension the chain!). I just can't see which bolts and screws need to be loosed/turned to make it tight.

I have the old style seat with a 3 position manual knob for recline. The highest position is still too reclined. Are there any options other than custom reupholstery with lots of extra foam padding? What have others done to solve their recline problems? Thanks, BrianW

I have a 1979 M20J. Normally I can rotate the trim wheel about 6" per grab. My wife can do about 4" per grab because she pulls the seat closer. The problem is, when I rotate the trim wheel it rotates 3 inches before it actually starts moving the mechanism. When I let go of the trim wheel to grab to continue trimming, the wheel rolls back to the slack position. This means that for my 6" rotation I only actually move the trim 3". But for my wife's 4" of movement, she only get 1" of useful trim. That renders the trim wheel useless for her (thank goodness for the electric trim button!). Still, I would like to tighten the loose trim wheel chain to fix the problem. My plane is currently in the shop for its annual at a Mooney service center (owner assisted☺). The mechanic was not aware of any way to tighten the small bicycle chain between the trim wheel sprocket and the trim mechanism below the floor board. I researched and came across Mooney service bulletin M20_325_88A . In the picture of the trim wheel the nuts (screws) labeled "ITEM 2" were the ones that moved the mechanism to tighten the chain. But I'm not sure. The chain didn't move when I turned those 2 screws. How does one get rid of the excessive bicycle chain slack at the trim wheel? Thanks, BrianW M20_325_88A-1.pdf