Prior owner

Mooney Service Bulletin M20-202 Per the above SB, the spacer is suggested if your nose gear geometry is off. Note that it will raise the height of the wheel in the wheel house when the gear is retracted (possibly causing contact with the wheel house?), and that it will drop the nose a bit, reducing your prop to ground clearance. I forget the measurements that I took, but a small spacer in that location does lower the nose more than you might think. If you don’t have issues with steering/tracking on takeoff or landing, it might be best to skip the spacer. See article by Don Maxwell on “the 8 second ride”.

If you plan to change the nose discs and you have a spacer installed under the collar (per the SB), you will probably need to rent/borrow the Mooney nose gear compression tool (or add lots of weight to the nose with a method shown above). It takes a lot of pressure to compress a new set of discs with a spacer installed. Also- two 3 ft lift straps wrapped around the top engine mount tubes (at the firewall) with a shop crane is an easy way to lift without having to remove the doghouse. The engine hoist point on a Lycoming uses a one small bolt through the aluminum case- most shops frown upon lifting from the engine hoist point. Not good for the engine or for you....don’t weight the tail, and don’t lift by the prop.

Good plan to start with. Replace the sending unit gaskets and clean up the fuel stains. I think I used Eox cleaner and water rinse with some small nylon brushes to clean up all of my gummy fuel residue (just don’t disturb the little blob of sealant in the aft bottom corner that protrudes from the tank into the cabin- that could create another leak). At least after that you’ll know that any leaking is not attributable to the sending units.

Lowen would probably have them..

I believe the 1966 has the rudder/aileron interconnect, and may also have the bungee. Aside from the basic flight controls rigging possibly being incorrect, I have seen instances where the interconnect spring clamps had to be moved, per the Mooney manual procedure, in order to get the plane flying right. But basic rigging has to be checked first. The aircraft could presently be rigged to compensate for something being out of adjustment. That said, I don’t know that the bungee or interconnect system actually provides a perfect and/or equal amount of rudder in both left and right turns to compensate for adverse yaw even when it is rigged properly...

Does the interior panel tuck in behind it?

Whatever you decide to use to remove that sealant, my only advice would be to mechanically remove as much as you possibly can, prior to introducing a chemical stripper into the tank... it will easily cut the job in half as far as effort and time. Try the 3M SR Cutting heads. https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/177797O/3mtm-sr-cutter.pdf

I believe that the vinyl/leather/cloth boot should never extend below the floor. Also, you have excessive play at the upper pivot bolt, above where your aileron center links connect together- you can see the assembly sliding fore/aft on the upper bolt when the links move right-left.

I would Put it on jacks and check the gear preloads before continuing to operate the gear. If the down limit switch is out of adjustment, the motor can start bending pushrods by continuing to run well past the point of sane preloads. And pull the belly panels and look at everything...

This might work. Probably very safe, too!

If your staining is in fact trapped Polygone, the good news is that it won’t eat the aluminum...

100LL is a very effective solvent (hence the nick name “ramp solvent”). I’m not sure that you would be able to detect small quantities of dissolved oil in your fuel. If CorrosionX managed to make its way into your fuel tank, then avgas would be coming back out through the rivet hole(s)! ... are you getting fuel staining in the wing, outside of the tank? As mentioned above, weeping through the rivets is a normal occurrence. On a side note, I have seen wing skin rivets weeping brownish fluid months after a tank strip & seal- not fuel, but small amounts of Polygone tank stripper that became trapped between the skin and the ribs because it didn’t flush completely out with water after application. Polygone will wrinkle/blister the paint around the weeping rivet.

An E model really has no rear leg room, unless the front passengers are very short legged... I use the second seat stop from the rear and nobody can put their feet down on the floor in my D model, unless there is only one rear passenger and they sit side diagonally with feet pointed sideways behind the other front seat. My back seat is good for baggage, or a folding bike, or one small person who doesn’t mind sitting sideways.

Although it was some time ago that I had a polished Luscombe, Back then I had tried every product out there and Mother’s mag and aluminum polish kept the plane shiny longer than anything else. ....and it lived outside. I used to call the factory and buy it by the quart. Surely, there are superior products out there now. Maybe not?

The only other things that I can think of- Perhaps Your suspicion that the spring isn’t the correct spring (too soft) is correct, coupled with the end of the cable housing might be sliding back and forth in its firewall clamp under cowl flap pressure in flight, or is it possible that the inner wire is moving inside the knob assembly (where it is crimped/swaged)? It sounds like your AP/IA is doing a pretty good job investigating this problem, and has probably already ruled these out though... My aircraft is also a converted D model, but the arms on my idler arm assembly have two holes (although I don’t know whether the rod assemblies could be adjusted to fit on the other holes or whether it would even operate that way). My assembly is also adjusted according to the model C specs (smaller cowl opening measurement). Ultimately, the cable needs to be disconnected from the idler arm assembly, and the cable operation and the cowl flap assembly need to be checked independent of one another for smooth, positive action. I’d also grab the end of the inner wire with smooth jaw pliers and push/pull against someone in the cockpit to see if the inner wire is secure at the knob end. Good luck with this one...whatever it is, it’s got to be something simple. (Devious, but simple)

Just to clarify- you have a knob other than the Mooney knob with the locking button in the center. I’m not familiar with the C150 mixture knob- does it have a locking feature? If so, it may not be up to the task of holding that cowl flap cable.... a typical non-vernier mixture control would require hardly any friction when locked in order to to do the job it was intended for. Is your cowl flap knob pushing out in flight? Also, when they are set up correctly, the cowl flaps don’t require that much force to open or close on the ground. Is the linkage to each cowl flap in the correct hole on the actuating arm? I have seen come that have more than one hole.

The clamps on the engine mount that hold the cowl flap shaft can slide up and down if they are not secure. This could cause the cowl flaps to not operate properly. Check

I’m curious as to whether the normally aspirated performance at sea level also changed? Is the only performance issue that the turbo is not producing/not indicating boost at altitude? Takeoff performance is normal?

In regards to the play in the rudder, I believe that the OP’s complaint was that there was play in the rudder only, with no mention of play in the nose wheel. The steering horn assembly is not in series with the rudder linkages, as they are parallel systems (Except as stated below). Excessive play in the nose wheel does not translate into play in the rudder- unless the play is discovered to be in the rudder torque tube bushings or in the rudder torque tube control linkages that connect directly to the pedals. Those linkages will affect play in both the nose wheel and the rudder.

I have been using the Tempest UREM37BY plugs with great success. No more fouling.

An IA recently told me that chrome cylinders may also be painted other colors, such as red, which would indicate the type of chrome (Ceramichrome, etc..), but he could find no reference for this. Lycoming’s current info online regarding the subject: https://www.lycoming.com/content/understanding-engine-color-codes I am wondering whether anyone has ever heard of the practice of painting cylinders colors other than the standard band colors... According to my engine log, the engine engine overhaul shop that performed my overhaul Installed “chrome” cylinders, which I verified by borescope inspection, however, the painted bands are clearly red, and not orange. Perhaps they ran out of orange paint that day?

Oh, I misunderstood...I thought it was your prop that was overhauled, not the engine...

My thoughts: What are the oil pressures at 1800 rpm before the first time you cycle the prop and before the last time you cycle the prop with warmed up oil? Higher engine rpm causes a greater volume of oil from the oil pump. This means that you should get an indication of higher pressure with higher rpm in a warmed up healthy engine provided there is no excessive wear in the engine. While it is possible for an air bubble to develop in your prop or oil cooler, an air bubble developing in the engine is highly unlikely.... All things being the same (this happened suddenly and is not related to higher OAT/oil temp, you have the same oil type as before, and you have no external oil leaks), you’ve either got an issue with the oil pressure gauge/line, the oil pump, a clogged oil pump pickup, an internal oil leak, a restriction in the system between the pump and the pressure regulator, or an issue with the oil pressure regulator not operating correctly or having something lodged in it. What other maintenance was performed recently? Try the simplest Things first- loosen the connection at your cluster gauge for the oil pressure gauge a little, run the engine with a rag or cup under it, and allow it to bleed off any air that might be in there. Not my first guess as to what might be wrong, but the easiest to rule out.

The scat from my front cowling is directed to the underside of my engine driven fuel pump. The blast tube on my generator is not attached to anything...there are no provisions on the back of my doghouse for another scat tube either... I am not sure if this was the factory arrangement in 1964. Does anyone know?

Regarding VNE: There’s more than the wing- sometimes it is something as simple as the windshield collapsing at a certain airspeed.