khedrei

Thanks for the replies so far. ramaircraft Boeing Spruce airpower aviation unlimited Southern Cross Aviation ...as well as a couple others all have no current stock. Spruce is working on something for me but she said likely not till November. I should find out more from her in a couple days. A friend of mine ordered 4 of them from 2 different places a couple months back and said he would sell me one if he gets them. I am hoping mine passes inspection. As long as it does I should be fine as long as an order comes in before July of 2025. If anyone knows of anywhere that has stock, I am all ears. Perhaps the continental people are just the unlucky ones... I got a few prices around 425-600 USD. Will cost me 1k CAD im sure by the time I get it here.

Wanted to revive this because I haven't been flying that much in the last 12 months and my next annual is due. I kind of forgot about this AD, and my mechanic told me last annual that I had 50hrs from the summer, which I have not fulfilled. I was also fortunate enough to dig up a logbook entry and parts invoice for my clamp #653332 which was replaced by the previous owner. It gives me more time, because I'm only at 440 hrs currently, but not that much more more time. Has anyone been able to source these parts, and how long did they wait for them? I called several places but it seems they all get them from the same big suppliers. Spruce gets them from Boeing, and they expect them in June and November. I had actually called Boeing first and they have a June lead time. I wonder where Boeing gets them from? It's like one big happy incestuous parts family. If I read the AD correctly, I fall under paragraph (i) (1) (i). Once I hit 500 hours I need to remove from service or I can use paragraph (2) which says this: (2) As an alternative to initially removing the v-band coupling from service as required by paragraph (i)(1) of this AD, you may perform the inspections required by paragraphs (k)(1) through (7) or (l) of this AD. Do the initial inspections at the time the v-band coupling would have been removed from service and thereafter at intervals not to exceed 6 months or 100 hours TIS, whichever occurs first, for a period not to exceed 2 years after the effective date of this AD. If the v-band coupling fails to meet any inspection criteria in paragraphs (k)(1) through (7) or (l) of this AD, it must be removed from service before further flight. Removing the v-band coupling from service and installing a new v-band coupling does not terminate the requirement to do these repetitive inspections This appears to allow me to get to 500 hours, then do the inspection in paragraph (k) (which I won't list, but they are fairly straighforward) every 6 months or 100 hours (in my case 6 months will come first). I can do that up until July 2025 which is 2 years from the date of the AD. This whole thing seems pretty insane to me. I assume there are several models of this clamp, but there are 40 000 aircraft affected by this AD. The suppliers that I have contacted have given me lead times of 1-8 months from now. The numbers they have ordered are also in the neighborhood of 10-200 units. I am aware that the part numbers they are giving me are for my engine, but at these low numbers, it is going to take an awfully long time to get to the required 40 000 aircraft affected by this therby grounding a huge fleet of GA airplanes. Does anyone have anymore information on this? Is there any chance that the FAA comes up with another method of compliance until the market can get more parts in stock? Perhaps there aren't as many people in the situation of being past the 500 hours as I might think... but this seems like a major issue. How can they expect 40 000 planes to comply with this incredibly broad AD in such a short period of time? I was clearly naive to think that waiting until this year would free up some backlog in the system. I should have tried to order it last year. Comments??

The drive coupling should not move under normal load. It is designed to fail if something seizes to prevent damage. How much load does that take.... ? I don't know. I am not a mechanic. If they reefed on it with a wrech its possible they broke it loose and it wasnt the issue hence why you are still having a problem. If it was the issue, there is a slim possibility your new one was a dud. I was under the impression you had the plane back and thats why I gave you some instructions on how to check it. It takes 2 minutes to check and can easily rule it out. As far as the situation you are in, I would be fighting them for sure. They diagnosed the fix, and it was wrong. If they are decent people they would waive the labor to install the coupling, wave the 30% mark up. I was able to re-re that part in less than 2 hours, so it shouldn't be a huge lose for them. If I were you, I would offer to pay dead cost for the part, and allow them to continue troubleshooting. You stay a customer, and keep relations good. If they aren't willing to agree on that I would find another mechanic. I'm not a mechanic, but those are my 2 cents. Aside from checking all the wiring, grouds, voltage regulator and alternator field, there isn't much more that can go wrong with the system. if you have a short in one of your pieces of equipment it should show a heavy current draw on the JPI. If that's not showing, and it's just low voltage, the only thing left is the alternator. Hell, at this point you could put your alternator on a friends plane to rule out wiring issues and confirm the bad alternator. Good luck to you.

I would still encourage you to check for a slipping drive coupler if you haven't already. When under heavier load it has a better chance of slipping. The rubber coupler is simply pressed into the cup so temperature will also affect it. They are refurbs an if you got a dud, it would be covered under warranty. I have heard of a few people who have.

You said they replaced the drive coupler (gear that connects the alternator to the accessory case). That thing runs close to 1 AMU USD i think. Mine was no good on my K. Easy to check. With the top cowling off, put your finger inside the fan of the alternator and gently try to turn the prop. Do it yourself or your friend might chop the tip of your finger off. Wear thin work gloves to minimize pressure. If you can turn the prop in either direction without chopping off your finger the coupler is bad. Is it possible they simply tried to repair it? New ones run 2k or more. The ones they sell at Spruce are refurbished. Perhaps you got a dud? Check it first cause its easy. Otherwise check voltage regulator? Connections as mentioned above.

I don't think it's a rigging issue. The tail was out of rig when I first test flew it after the avionics install. The avionics guy called in a specialized shop to rig the tail and it was fixed. I understand that with different loading senarios at the high end of the speed envelope, the tail would be movable into a position which could eliminat most (if not all) of the requirment to have the elevator displaced. Again, I am not an engineer nor a mechanic. I guess it can't move quite that much? And yes, to answer your question, we see the counter weights of the elevator, not the elevator itself. It does not seem like the plane is out of rig. It just seems like I am going too slow.

Yes, I forgot to include my power settings. I run 28" MP and 2500 RPM and 13.5 GPH just like you stated. I have the intercooler and Merlyn wastegate. My panel is decked out. Full G500Txi, with most of the bells and whistles so I trust the numbers. Pitot static was just done this spring at a reputable shop and also done 2 years ago when the panel was done. Nothing changed after either. TAS calculator is consistant at 10k feet I see 150kts every trip. Thats with 2 medium sized guys in the front and a full bagage compartment. It also gives me wind direction calculator and ground speed and it works out if I do the math. If I run 29" I can get a few extra knots TAS. It has been like that since I got it 5 years ago and been through several shops. Like I said, it rolls ever so slightly to the right with hands off in flight but not much. I'm not sure what else I can do. It has all the gap seal kits that were availalble, but it does not have the one piece belly.Other Media Thanks for all the input on the prop. Especailly the detailed response from @philiplane Making me think it is unlikely to be worth an upgrade. Come to think of it, the MT on my friends 182 that I really liked so much did have a crack on the trailing edge. It was just out of warranty. A local shop charged around $1500 CAD to send it off and have it fixed. They did a good job but you can still see where the repair was made. Perhaps more trouble than they are worth. I haven't had to do anything to my 2 blade McCauly aside from a file down a couple times a year that takes 20 minutes.

I do have a slightly heavy wing in flight but it's not terrible. I certainly don't think fixing it will give me more than a couple KTs. It went in for an extensive annual 4 years ago to a Mooney shop and they did some controle stop adjustments. The same shop was called in to rig the tail when the avionics shop screwed up putting the trim back together after the GFC-500 Auto pilot was installed. I guess this thread is a good enough place to ask this as I have been wondering for a while. A really good experienced pilot friend of mine noticed that in cruise flight, the elevator is slightly up. The plane is trimmed, and if the AP is disengaged it flies level so there is no issue on that, but shouldn't a movable tail be able to be in a position where no elevator is required in cruise phases of flight? Perhaps this is a rigging issue? Thanks for the feedback so far on the prop. I would love to hear if anyone has gained or lost airspeed in a K model after changing the prop.

I know this has been talked about before. I have read through the threads, most were a bit older. I am looking for an opinion from someone who as made the change from the 2 blade McCauly to the 3 blade MT on a 231. I have the 360 LB engine. I seem to cruise slower than some others with the same plane. I run 80-90 ROP just over 13 GPH and see TAS around 150KT at 10k. I also find that my plane is VERY noisy compared to 182's and Bonanzas that I have flown, even ones with metal props. I am aware of the other benefits of the MT, but I am interested to find out from anyone who has done this if the noise improved (if so, by how much), as well as their difference in cruise speed. I am aware that the climb will be better. MT claims an improvment in cruise speed for the K. They don't claim it for the J. I assume that has to do with the turbo being able to maintain sea level power while the J cannot so the drag of the extra blade is then a penalty. My prop is due for its 10 year overhaul next year. It will probably cost me about 5k CAD MT quoted me on a new 3 blade with deice. With shipping and taxes I am probably looking at 27k CAD and a 8 month lead time. Also curious... It was my understanding that the US does not have a 10 year manadtory overhaul on CS props. Would that mean my existing prop has more value down there? If I were to sell it to someone in Canada it would need an overhaul before it could be used. The prop was brand new in 2013 and now has less than 400hrs I believe so I assume the blades should pass inspection. It seems like a huge investment for minimal gain, even if I could get 7k CAD for my old prop. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

Interesting. I thought everyone loved them. The stock ones are too small and can’t be fixed in place other than out front. The Rosen didn’t look that much bigger in the picture. I suppose the plexiglass can be run though a band saw to shave an inch or so off a couple sides then sanded and polished up to match? Waiting to hear back from Don before I call Rosen

Thanks Don. Sending you a PM.

I decided to finally get a pair of these. Aicraft Spruce no longer lists them on the website for Mooney. There are a couple places in the US that show they have in stock on the website (knots4u) However, they are listed in the Spruce catalog and when I was at the store in Brantford she looked up the part number. She said "the system says discontinued, in for redesign, certification could take months". Does anyone know anything about this? I haven't read about any issues with these ever! Everyone loves them. Curious if anyone knows anything about this before I call Rosen.

Checked on Spruce. It appears its fairly universal to many Continental engines. It simply specifies TSIO-360 with no reference to the MB or LB. $855 USD plus a core charge. Will run 1400 Canadian with taxes. Insane. I assume buying a new alternator for 1200 bucks doesn't come with the drive... Again, I will keep posted.

Thanks a lot Clarence! I will check that today. My engine is an LB. Would the part number be the same? I will post my findings in hopes of helping the next guy.

Thanks for the responses. I fired it up today and it appears the master switch wouldn't reset the problem. But running at 1200 rpm the voltage slowly kept up from 12.3 up to over 13.7 without a run up. Sounds like Clarence is onto something. Does anyone have a part number for a new one?

I will revive this "gem" of a thread to add in my own issue and maybe someone can nudge me towards a solution. I have a 1980 231. 14V. I have a G500Txi with the Bus voltage and the amps displayed digitally on the engine monitor strip on the right hand side. I will try to find an example pictures but I think that because I have the voltage displayed constantly might help troubleshoot and eliminate some of the places I might need to test. I have gone through RagsF15e's posts and some of those seem plausible. I had the aircraft battery replaced last year. Situation is this: after start up the voltage only goes up to about 12.2-12.5ish and the amps show a discharge of -15 and once the avionics are turned on it jumps to -25. The factory low voltage annunciation above the radio stack flashes. When I got to doing the run up and revved everything up it went back to normal and I showed 14V and +2 amps for the whole flight. On the way home same thing happened right after start up. This time even before the run up I simply shut off the master and turned it back on and the problem went away and it was fine for the whole flight. My friend flew it a while ago and he said that happened to him and that was the first time I had heard of it happening. He reset the master and problem was solved. It didn't do it again until 2 months and 15+ flights later. Now it seems reasonably consistent. I will try it again tomorrow on the ground and see if it does it again. Resetting the Alt field CB doesn't seem to do anything. The master was able to solve the problem at least twice now and the other time it simply went away during the run up. Has me wondering if its an issue with the second pole on the master switch turning on the alternator field (as mentioned above), or possibly a bad voltage regulator. The VR is under the copilots left knee under the panel and easy to access, though the harness/connections would make it tough to check any voltage there. The other option mentioned above is the jumper between the power bus and the main bus.... where would I find this connection? Is that at the battery near the aux power outlet? The are no obvious signs of frayed or damaged wires but the fact that this started off as very intermittent and has gotten progressively worse has me leaning towards a bad VR. The wire that looks to go to the VR from the alternator does seem to have a small bit of oil on it (as does the general area like a small mist) but otherwise the connections are all fine and there is no obvious damage. Any input is appreciated. Kevin

Except with the new avionics I dont really touch those nicely covered yokes. AP and tunes on.

Had my glareshield and yokes done last year. Hector is a pro. Couldn't be happier. They are basically perfect. When the plane is dow is a good time to do it. Hes fast but you have to be in the schedule.

I'm at about 1200 hours on my LB. I'd be interested in finding out how much it would cost but I'm several years out on needing an OH. Unless something goes wrong that is. If you guys get close to the 20... count me as a maybe.

I clicked on this hoping it was worth lots of money... cause I have one

Working when removed. Guaranteed against DOA. Includes tray and MD41 nav annunciator and antenna. No wires or pin connectors but they are standard and easy enough to get. Everything pictured is yours. Bennet sells the unit alone for $2200 with no hardware. I think $1600 is a reasonable ask. Ill include shipping.

I cut a piece of cardboard and fold it in such a way that its snug through the engine mount and stays in place without me trying to hold it. Make sure its folded towards the end to a point like a spout and long enough to reach the drain pan. Can do it with no oil on the strut or tire or anywhere other than a bit on the engine mount but easy to clean up. Cardboard gotta be right though. Take a bit of time. First time I did it was a mess. It fell out and spilled everywhere.

It won't let me load the picture from the poh. It doesn't have 2500 rpm listed but it shows 2400 rpm and 32.8" MP at 10k feet at 75% power and std temp to give 168ish knots TAS. Thats being said i have the intercooler and merlin wastegate and I was told to use the 252 numbers so I use 28-29 MP which is supposed to be equivalent to 33" on the stock 231. I was thinking that maybe my intercooler isn't working as its supposed to but even if I use 28 " on these tables I should be going faster than 150kts. The only things I can think of are the hot prop but its a factory option so the POH takes that into account and it isn't worth 18kts...

I use 2500 RPM. I run 90 ROP. I'm definitely not confusing IAS and TAS. Im an instructor and know the difference. I also have an OAT on my G500Txi which gives me the readout. I have found that the OAT for the TXi reads about 2 degrees C higher than the one on the window. I will do a 4 way GPS test next time I'm up. I dont see rigging being an issue. It went for an annual at a MSC a couple years back and they said some of the limits were off slightly and adjusted them. The trim was out of whack after the GCF 500 was installed but the avionics guy had the same MSC come re-rig it. I dont have a one piece belly but thats not 20 knots. Is it possible my prop isn't the right model for the engine? It was new in 2013 before I bought it.

I'd love to know how you get that. I have a 1980 231 with a merlyn wastegate and intercooler. 28" and 12.5 - 13 GPH and I generally won't see higher than 150 kts TAS at 9-10k feet.