PT20J

Could the bend in the retraction rods shorten them enough to cause the tire to rub? There’s not much clearance. My nose wheel well is undercoated and had a rub mark. I applied more undercoat to see if it was still rubbing and it’s not, but the tire is about half worn. Skip

Mine squeak at the ends of travel no matter how well lubed. The problem is that there is a slight eccentric motion at the aileron bellcrank and that presses the push-pull tubes fore and aft against the outermost block as the tubes move back and forth. I talked to LASAR, Top Gun, and DMax about it and they all said that some just do that. Still, the blocks are an annual lube item. Skip

I don’t remember which thread it’s in but I made the comment. That was a tip given to me by Don Maxwell. If you use the hoses specified in the IPC for the A3B6 installation, you need to flip the oil cooler. The other things that trip people up are the prop governor line interfering with the motor mount. (The easiest solution is to just bend the line a bit.) The prop governor (you need a different governor, the mounting to the engine is different, the cable mounting hardware is different - it’s all in the Lycoming and Mooney parts books) and lastly putting the jumper on the ignition switch to ground out the right mag for starting. Skip

OK, I'll bite: How do you get it from the drum to the engine? Skip

Older style AIs don't have pitch marks (the horizontal lines in the black ground area are not meant to be pitch references and are not equally spaced). In this case, attitude is referred to as "bar widths" above or below the horizon. According to the FAA Instrument Flying Handbook, p5-19, "The width of the wings of the symbolic aircraft and the dot in the center represent a pitch change of approximately 2 degrees." Skip

My wife says I’m to literal. I guess I’ve just wrestled those barrels up onto the stand one too many times.

There’s not enough of a price break to be worth the hassle. The museum buys 55 gal drums of 120 weight not because of the price so much but because the radials use so much of it.

No shop I deal with requires advance payment. I think Garmin dealers get net 30 payment terms. I’m curious if other MSers are paying up front. Skip

Triflow is not the best choice for control bearings which are ball bearings and need a more viscous lubricant as specified in the maintenance manual. From my earlier post under Let’s Talk Lubrication: OK, here’s the scoop on control bearings: My M20J IPC does not list the bearings but only the next higher assemblies which are brackets with the bearings pressed into them. I confirmed with Dan Reisland at LASAR that the aileron, elevator and rudder bearings are PN3A. (I did not confirm, but believe that the flaps use PN4A bearings). I confirmed with Ivette Prerez at RBC Bearings that they are NOT sealed. Therefore, the Mooney Maintenance Manual is correct and the bearings should be oiled with a light machine oil annually/100 hrs. Skip

Clarence makes a good point. It is worth noting that the Mooney 50-hour/100-hour/Annual Maintenance Inspection Guide lists removing and inspecting the suction screen, and Lycoming SB480F lists removing and inspecting the suction screen at every oil change. That is certainly the safest thing to do. However, I think that may be overkill on a healthy engine, and I tend not to want to mess with stuff if I don't need to. In my case, I have a newly factory rebuilt engine. I inspected it at about 100 hours and plan to inspect it again at 500. However, if I had any indications of oil pressure abnormalities, it's the first thing I would check. If I had an older engine with high oil consumption, I would probably look at it every annual. Skip

You must have missed the pictures some have posted of various apparatus designed to drain every last drop from oil bottles.

Keep in mind that this regulation was written back when pressure screens were the norm whereas now full flow filters are common. Also, most airplanes these days have quick drains rather than plugs. On engines where the pressure screen has been been replaced with a filter, examining the filter media substitutes for the screen inspection. As Paul noted, there is also a coarse suction screen. On many Continental engines, this screen is not externally accessible. On my Lycoming-powered IO-360, it is removable but a real pain to safety wire. If you do remove it, replace the copper gasket (split side should go toward engine) and note the specific torque method -- you really don't want a leak here. Since it is a very coarse screen, a lot of shops will only examine it if metal is found in the filter. I had mine pulled last annual as it was the first annual on a new engine, but will not plan on doing it this year. When we found metal in the filter of the old engine, we pulled it and found part of an oil control ring in there! Skip

Be sure to check both airframe and engine logbooks. If it’s not logged, assume it wasn’t done. It is not required to change the oil at annual, but the filter media is supposed to be inspected. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=0863bc08f79f500eda8ee73439be0400&mc=true&node=ap14.1.43_117.d&rgn=div9 Skip

Fondly remember my morning trip up to Leadville in my ‘78 J to get a T-shirt years ago. An army CH-47 dropped in to get T-shirts also. Skip

Anthony is correct w.r.t. blue arrows. These things get stepped on all the time. It looks like your front tab got bent aft so the slot no longer engages the front of the lever. Just bend the tab forward enough so that the ramp on the bottom of the lever pushes the tab forward as you push the lever down until the front of the lever engages the slot in the tab to lock it down. To engage the emergency gear system, push the tab forward to release the lever and pull the lever up. The lever engages the pull cord mechanism but does not disengage the motor which is why it pops the breaker. Skip

These are panels that should come off every year for inspection. If it were mine, I’d take a few minutes and install rivnuts and be done with it.

John, The parts book doesn’t call for spacers and I don’t think they are a good idea. The leading edge has a slight inward bend so that when the fairing is screwed down tight it will keep air from getting under the fairing perhaps stressing it and adding drag. Spacers could interfere with this design feature. One thing that is a good idea is to put teflon or UHMW Polyethylene tape on the inside aft edge to keep it from scratching the paint on the empennage which moves with trim. Skip

A couple of points: 1. Remember that Vy decreases with density altitude and Vx increases. At DAs above 8000’ I like to use a climb speed halfway between SL Vx and Vy. 2. The oft used 70% takeoff speed at 50% runway length mathematically works out to liftoff speed being reached at the end of the runway (I posted the derivation a while back). So, better be more conservative unless there are no obstructions. Skip

Delving into the IPC shows that Mooney changed from PK screws to machine screws and rivnuts beginning with 24-1418. So installing the appropriate rivnuts just brings it up to date. Note that at the same time, Mooney also changed the fairing sheet metal. The old ones had a gap at the bottom between the two halves whereas the newer ones wrap around the bottom for a cleaner look. Skip

Here’s a link to Service Bulletin M20-208B. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4147179/technical_documents/service_bulletins/sbm20-208b-1.pdf There might be a clue to which serial numbers have epoxy primer by noting the effectivity for part B. The effectivity is strange because, I believe all M20Js have flush windows. I wouldn’t hesitate to call Jimmy Garrison at GMAX for his take. He’s a long time Mooney broker, very familiar with the market and a straight shooter. https://www.gmaxamericanaircraft.com Skip

A good A&P will look for obvious corrosion at annual and it should be an area of investigation during the pre-purchase inspection. The scary corrosion is anything involving the spar. The wheel wells expose the spar and should be carefully checked. Spilled soda in the back seat can be problematic as the plane sits about 5 deg nose high so any liquid runs downhill and soaks the lower spar cap with phosphoric acid (doesn't that make you want a Coke right now?). The tubular structure can get water soaked and the tubes externally corroded if the windows leak and the insulation hasn't been replaced with the foam. Inspection for that requires pulling the interior which isn't normally done during a pre-purchase unless there is reason to suspect a problem. According to Don Maxwell, the biggest problem is leaking pilot's storm windows (replace the seal). Water gets in and sits on a channel that is used to attach the interior plastic panels. The channel is PK screwed to the tubes. On the later epoxy primered planes these screws were sealed but on earlier ones they can rust out allowing water to enter the tubes and migrate to the bottom longitudinal where it sits and rusts out from the inside. The only way to check for this is to pull the rear seats, open the inspection holes between the spars and pull the tension bolts and run a magnet inside the tubes. Personally, I would not buy a plane with zinc chromated tubes unless it had a recent reputable 208 inspection and foam insulation. Been there, done that, spent a lot of money to have a tube replaced. Skip

There was a traffic reporter in the SF Bay area that flew an early M20J in the late 80's/early 90's. It was involved in a midair with a C-150 that was on a training flight with a student and instructor. The C-150 nosewheel bent the Mooney vertical stabilizer/rudder in half. Both planes landed and everyone survived to have a great story to tell. That Mooney was maintained by Top Gun. When it racked up 10,000 hours, Tom Rauch called the factory and asked them if there was anything special to look for and they said, "Dunno, never seen one with that many hours. Let us know what you find." Plane was fine and is still flying and owned my a MSer. Wonder how many hours it has on it now? Skip

Here's a neat spreadsheet that shows M20J changes by year. Somewhere in the mid-80's, the factory switched from zinc chromate to epoxy primer on the tubular structure. The way I think about it that I'm really buying three components: Airframe, engine, avionics For what it's worth, Mike Bush recommends getting the newest lowest time airframe you can afford (that's the part you can't change). There are so many factors regarding the engine that it may be best to purchase an airplane with a high time engine (appropriately discounted) and reserve enough money to replace the engine with one where you control the overhaul. Avionics upgrades are expensive. The previous owner will not be able to get anywhere near full value in a sale for what they put into recent upgrades. So, the best deal there is to buy one with avionics you can live with for a while -- you're getting any recent upgrades at a deep discount. Keep in mind that the first year or two usually have maintenance surprises no matter how thorough your pre-purchase inspection was. Skip 201hist.xls

Not sure about the M20U, but for the M20J, Mooney lists all the electrical part numbers in Chapter 91 at the end of Vol 1 of the Service and Maintenance Manual. Skip

Here's what I've standardized on: AS 7 - Trim system, control guide blocks AS 22 - Landing gear zerks Mobile SHC 100 - wheel bearings (latest suggested grease by Mooney and Parker Hannifin) Lubriplate 630AA -Landing gear and flap actuator balls screws Skip