PT20J

Agreed, but not that hard if you charge it immediately after the test. It’s a tradeoff. I wouldn’t do it monthly. But maybe 6 month intervals would make sense.

I think most building codes only require gas water heaters to be 18” above the floor due to the pilot light. Seems like requiring the refrigerator to be 18” off the floor is overkill, but my hangar has that reg also.

I think the idea is that if someone has a fuel leak, the fuel vapors are heavier than air and so will be near the ground. So, keeping any potential spark producing equipment 18" above the floor might prevent ignition.

Inboard senders are accessed from the cabin. Outboard senders are accessed through a removable panel outboard of the tank. No need to unseal the tank.

That’s an interesting result. Of course, the capacity check only serves to indicate whether the battery can be returned to service as of the date of the check. Since the checks are recommended to be performed annually, I always assumed that the battery would degrade slowly enough near its end of life that it would not fail completely within a year after a successful check. I wonder if it might make sense to do more frequent checks after a few years of use?

It's not Mooney specific. It's a Lycoming spec. Reference Lycoming SSP-1776 Table of Limits and Torques. You turn the plug until the surfaces meet and then tighten by turning an addional 135 degrees.

My IA says he has had stainless screws gall and jam in nutplates and now he puts anti seize on them. I’ve never had an issue. Has anyone else had issues with stainless screws galling?

Does the airplane sit outside a lot? You could also try putting some aa ACF-50 on the threads.

Like Don, one of my most “interesting” flights was with a salesman. I only got St Elmos fire on the windshield once — years ago over the Woodside VOR heading for SJC. I was in the clouds in heavy precip but there were no thunderstorms around thankfully. That was in my 1978 J with no static wicks and the coms were fine. I didn’t try the ADF.

KAP150 Pilots Guide.pdf Sonalert is in the overhead. You should also hear it when you disengage the autopilot. If not, I’d check the sonalert.

All the jacks have a spherical cup. This is to allow the jack point to freely rotate as the angle changes when the wing is lifted. They will work fine with the Mooney or LASAR conical jack points.

My 1978J didn’t have them. My 1994J does. I’ve noticed no difference flying lower altitudes in precip. YMMV.

I believe they were an option. Probably most helpful with ADF. The last time I replaced one it was hard to find the one Mooney used. I notice LASAR. has the 4” for $75 ea. Personally, I wouldn’t replace them.

Be careful if you ordered one of the pre-packaged screw kits. I found that some of the screws were too long. In most places it doesn't matter, but there are a couple of inspection panels where screws longer than called out in the IPC can damage control push-pull tubes.

You can get the service manual including the schematics in pdf form from Mooney. I got mine directly from Frank Crawford, but I'm not sure if he can still supply them or if you have to go through a MSC. The relay that controls the battery circuit is near the battery in the tail. Easy to check it's functioning with a voltmeter.

That crush washer is not crushed by torque but by turning the bolt 135 degrees. If it leaks I would remove the screen check the mating surfaces and install a new washer and tighten it properly.

Maybe Mooney did different things at different times. I know there was a decal because I bought one to put on my 1978 M20J that didn't have one at all.

Alpha 324 24” jacks work fine with my M20J. My pucks are pretty new.

The original is a self adhesive decal. Mooney should have them or can probably make one (Frank Crawford makes various decals to order). Email Frank for availability and part number and then order through a MSC. Fcrawford@mooney.com.

M20Ks and later have a bob weight and variable downspring instead of trim assist bungees used in earlier models and trim in flight with the elevator trailing edge up.

One of my JPI EGT probes went flakey at a little more than 1200 hrs. I’d replace them. CHT and oil probes should last longer.

Make sure all the accessories are overhauled along with the engine. I'd overhaul the oil cooler -- it's not expensive. Might be worth painting or powder coating the engine mount depending on condition. Also you want to make sure that the instrumentation is good for a new engine so it might be a good time to replace the probes depending on age and condition. R&R is pretty straightforward removing and reconnecting stuff.

There is no rote method that always works. Success depends on understanding what's going on. Gasoline will only combust over a fairly narrow range of fuel-air mixtures. The mixture control controls the amount of fuel and the throttle controls the amount of air admitted to the cylinders during starting. When cold, you are admitting a known amount of fuel by priming and the air is fixed by the throttle setting. When hot, the air is the same with the same throttle setting, but the fuel is variable. Why? When you first shut down, the fuel lines to the injector nozzles are full of fuel. The residual heat from the engine with no cooling airflow starts to boil the fuel out of the lines into the intake manifold. If you restart soon (say within a few minutes) this fuel "primes" the engine and it will start with the throttle cracked and the mixture in ICO. As soon as it starts, smoothly advancing the mixture to full rich will keep it running. If it has been sitting longer, the fuel will have evaporated and the lines to the nozzles are dry and it won't want to start unless you crank long enough to fill the lines. If you prime as cold it will flood. But, often turning on the boost pump for a second or so will refill the lines enough to let it start without flooding. This all assumes that your ignition system is good: Timing correct, magnetos serviced within the last 500 hours, spark plugs clean and gapped properly. The RSA fuel injection system does not meter fuel based on airflow below about 1200 rpm. So, to make it idle properly, the throttle is connected to an idle fuel valve by a linkage so that throttle position controls fuel flow at low rpm. The proper way to prime is to open the throttle at least 1/4 so that the fuel flow is not restricted. This should require about 4 seconds of prime. The reason you need twice that is because you have the throttle more closed. But, this introduces an additional variability in priming that may be an issue over a wider range of ambient temperatures and altitudes.

Should be the same as my M20J. There was lots of extra wire so I just used crimp butt splices. Easy and quick to install. I don't expect to ever have to replace the LED lights, but there's plenty of wire there if I do.

It's inside the door.