Prior owner

Hopefully it’ll be an easy fix.

True!

I shopped around for a while, and Spruce seems to have the best deal on LED nav bulbs- they have a set of three ( red, green, clear) for $60 Wing & tail LED bulb set

That is interesting....I was looking at my main gear the other day and the camber looks to be different on each side. I haven’t measured anything yet though. Thanks for confirming that we were talking about the gear and not the doors!

Ah, thanks for clarifying...I thought you were referring to @Yetti ‘s comment regarding Mooneys having one main gear that looks wonky...

Just so I understand this correctly, are you saying that each main gear will have a different camber angle when they are extended?

You would think the main gear angles would be symmetrical, unless somebody bent it on a sloppy landing?

Great- thank you

Oh, I just noticed that the terminals are different than the light in my 1964 D...might not work!

Hi Lance, I’d like to buy a PAR 46 LED landing light from you- Do I just go to PayPal lance99@aol.com and make payment? Thanks, Dave

Thought I’d throw these pics up- I found them while lazily pursuing landing gear pics... haven’t seen this approach to avoiding towing damage before. It definitely has its pluses and minuses!

Do You mean when one main gear /wheel looks to be leaning more than the other?

Here’s where I’m at right now..

It’s been a while since I posted any progress on my 1964 M20D. I haven’t been to the hangar in over a month! School is out, so I’m diving back in.... spent the day getting the two top access panels off and the trying out a different approach to sealant removal. I’m stripping the left fuel tank now. Things I learned during the right tank stripping: 1. Mechanically remove as much sealant as you can before you pour Polygone in the tank and turn everything into “Satan’s Chewing Gum.” Whatever you can’t remove- at least score it up. 2. Don’t introduce water into the tank until you are absolutely sure that you are finished with the Polygone. 3. Try something new. And I did. On the first tank I used phenolic and plastic scrapers. They were kind of thick and could not be made very sharp. So I tried this: I bought a cheap flexible angle drive for my cheapo HF drill ( I can’t get enough air CFM in my hangar to run an angle grinder), a threaded bit adapter and a pack of 3M sealant remover cutters on Amazon (not cheap). Also, I tried two different kinds of plastic razor blades... The 3M cutters are designed to remove fuel tank sealant without scratching the aluminum. They work amazing well.....at least until they hit a rivet. They are very brittle, so they start shedding chunks of plastic. If you are careful, you can make one last for maybe 20 minutes- which allows you to tear up a good amount of sealant. The plastic razor blades are good for removing thin strips of sealant that the 3M cutter can’t reach....but the plastic blades are kinda fragile. Probably why they sell them in 50 packs? The yellow blades were softer and not quite as sharp as the orange blades. I’ll find out soon just how bad the snot is going to get this time around, with less sealant in the tank. Also, it’s scary to note that if the two tiny half moon holes in the base of the sump drain are clogged, water is going to rise to a level very close to the pickup screen. I believe that the corrosion on my sump drain fitting might indicate that was it was sitting in water for a while.

Wow. Never heard of it. Thanks for posting the link

Since water is a byproduct of combustion, I guess the only way to get it all out after shutdown would be to have a forced dry-air system. I wonder how much moisture is in suspension in the engine oil as well- and if it’s clinging to the cam lobes and lifters after shutdown then there is probably nothing practical that can be done to protect a cam.

I have wondered about slipping desiccant devices on the exhaust stack and at the crankcase breather tube after shutdown in an effort to prevent moisture from being drawn into the engine as things begin to cool down.

I wondered about doing it that way, and asked the rep that very question. They wanted no part of it (understandably). What you’re saying makes sense to me for a small area repair, but it sounds like It would make a real mess to try to do the whole tank like that. I’ve only stripped and resealed one tank, but When I used MEK to clean up around the inspection cover faying surfaces, it was a lot of work to get the 3600 coating off the aluminum. Haven’t tried use MEK to remove an aged coating yet though.... perhaps it’s a lot easier.

When I spoke to the FlameMaster tech rep he was adamant about never applying their 3600 protective coating over anything but a freshly sealed tank- once the sealant and /or the 3600 coating (same as PR-1005-L) is contaminated with fuel, there will be adhesion issues.

Thanks for posting all this- I gotta get me one of those!

Thank you for explaining that... I was reviewing constant speed prop operation just last week and the FAA study materials seem to infer that there is no such thing as a single engine recip prop that feathers or has a beta range. I swear I learn something new every day on this site.. thanks

Carusoam, Are you sure that a Mooney prop will sometimes go to high pitch (low rpm) when oil pressure is lost? Because this goes against everything that I know about a Hartzell prop... All constant speed props without counterweights (or an air charged type cylinder) should go to lowest pitch when oil pressure is lost, due to centrifugal twisting force... how would a Hartzell prop fail to go to lowest pitch (unless the oil is unable to be ported out of the cylinder)? Is there something unique about the installation of the prop on a Mooney? If I’ve got it wrong, I need some ‘splainin to.

Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t see how a lack of oil pressure could cause a Hartzell prop to not reach max rpm.....

I think they used an antenna for the pitot tube...?

TSO on the engine? TSO on the prop? Did anyone measure the blade angle on the prop when it wouldn’t reach max rpm- I’m wondering whether the pitch change is hanging up due to crud in the prop.