Nukemzzz

Not counting my chickens yet. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lol

After the 45min test flight a couple of days ago we pulled the cowling and see this oil spot around the exhaust port on the head. It’s baffling me. Where could this have come from? Head had no oil on when we started it and there is no other oil on anything around this area. Valve cover doesn’t seem to be leaking. I would say the cylinder is burning oil, but how did it get past the gasket? it’s hard to see in the picture but it’s on the cooling find all the way around the exhaust port and just on this cylinder maybe a leaking freeze plug I can’t see? Maybe it’s nothing seeing what you guys think

That’s Jeff, a Co-worker, friend and my CFII. He checked out in a Mooney to get insurance with me in this plane so I can train in it. He’s a natural. His first landing in this thing was last Jan 1 after we flew cross country up from Florida, in high gusty winds at night. He landed like a bird.

Merry Christmas to me! Some of you might remember that back in March I detected an oil leak on 34X and on April 10 we confirmed it was a cracked engine case on cyl #2. ‘Twas a sad day indeed. Especially since I had bought and flew it home Jan 1 and only had 15.2hrs in the plane. While the engine was out I did a bunch more work to the plane because I wanted to make the best of the down time. It took so long to get the engine back in and buttoned up that we ran into the next annual timing and so now this is all ending up adjacent to this years annual. I want to say thank you to the MooneySpace community for all of your guidance and advice. This forum is invaluable to those like me trying to keep these vintage plane airborne The list I’ve been keeping of the work done since that April: Remove, repair, replace the engine. They did a gear ad. Install Oil filter. Cam. DLC Lifters. New superior case. Added JPI fuel flow transducer New fuel supply line Install new fuel lines to servo and JPI fuel flow transducer and from electric to manual pump. New mixture and throttle cable Replace mixture ball end at servo with rod end kit part number 660051-005 Replaced ram air cable mount bracket and bushing at mixture mount on engine to support the cable properly. Old bracket was a bent thin steel plate with no bushing and it wore though the cable. Pilot side sceet tubing installed and old worn out stuff removed. Instrument panel renovation. Install transponder and ASDB-IN AHRS box. Mount GPS antenna and route wires Install stratus USB. Removed two cigarette lighters Install nulight stc ring lights Install primary gage LED lights Remove mitchel turn and bank and install MidCont turn coordinator Replace Wing Leveler Aileron servo boots in the wings. Replace rudder servo boots for brittain accutrak autopilot system. Replace step retract servo unit with good serviceable. Overhaul nose gear truss assembly. Sent to Lasar: -Exchange truss with unit overhauled by Lasar with turn limit feature STC from Lasar. -replace nose lord bushings -install spacer to preload bushing to improve ground tracking (Mooney SB) -Realigned nose gear Repair and paint interior window trim Repaired and painted cabin side walls. Installed new carpet in floor, lower walls, and luggage compartment with carpeted panels, re apolstered arm rests and entry door windlace from Airtex. Replaced entry door plastic and painted to match. Install Johnson bar boot Stop drill firewall cracks and seal with permatex. New spark plugs: UREM-38E One Mag repair/overhaul Zerk replacement front and main gear Insect yoke tubes Check fuel filter screen Replace fuel cap o-rings Connect compass light power Install new front seat belts and shoulder belts ADs completed on motor mount by Loree air. Installed JPI fuel flow transducer. Replaced 2 motor mounts. Moved lower to upper and installed new ones in lower.

The prop height I just measured at 10” which is the top of the limit. This is because my mains are squatting because I haven’t changed those donuts yet. I believe the consensus here it should be ok but be on alert if it doesn’t handle well during my first landings. I have a good understanding of motorcycle and 4 wheel care steering and suspension dynamics but a tricycle gear with the nose wheel seeming to be trailing is new to me. I need to draw this out and think on it more. I think this wheel is still like a motorcycle. The rake is fixed. It isn’t changing when the shock disks compress. But the trail is getting longer. It’s below it and the distance between the two changes as the wheel compressed. On a motorcycle increasing the rake angle, stretching it, makes the bike more stable but harder to corner. What’s hard to picture here is the fact that the axle isn’t on the steering shaft centerline. I don’t yet understand why having a shorter trail (pre shim) makes it less stable and I don’t know why you would get a shimmy (instability in the mechanism) with an increased trail. I suspect that increased trail makes it more stable at high speeds and less stable at low speeds. I’ll think on this some more. Lol

Does anyone know the actual differences between these parts by year? It was really hard to the the lower arm connected to the truss as well. Had to flex the disk stack to the side quite a bit to get the holes lined up and it was in the direction that it will move when the gear compresses more meaning there are hints that things aren’t aligned very well and now I’m worried that Lasar thinks all these parts are interchangeable and they aren’t.

Yeah, as the disks wear the axle moves back and up. These are brand new shock disks though so it’s going to move even more back as it ages.

Used to get the plane on the scales and that’s all.

Yes, this is why the tire is flat. lol It’s also on blocks on the main.

This is exactly what I’m suspecting. But I also don’t know that it hurts to have more trail. Will find out as soon as the weather clears up!

That’s good thinking. Everything checks out though.

Yeah, this is what they told me as well, it’s just interesting that it no longer matches the w&b diagram because the axel is behind the truss pivot now instead of in front. This fundamentally changes the nose gear behavior when tracking and steering. I guess it’s good that it’s always on one side instead of compressing across that axis when landing and loading it.

Yeah. The donuts are squashed pretty tight even before putting weight on the plane because of the shim.

When I sent my nose truss for Lasar for overhaul they installed the shim for SB M20-202 saying it would make it track better on the ground. Well we just finished weighing the plane and I checked my nose gear per that SB and my nose axle is 1.5” behind the datum when all the Mooney diagrams, including the W&B show the axle in front of the diagram. I think as long as I have prop clearance I’m ok, just wondering what the Mooney wizards thought about this.

The list of things I’ve done to this plane since I bought it and flew it home Jan 1 2020 is too long to list here. But I’ll be posting it soon as tomorrow appears to be test flight day after I grounded it in March for a cracked engine case. I think I’m pretty close to having the worst post buy experience in history but I’m coming out the back side with something I’ve been completely through and trust to be safer and less maintenance going forward. My panel looked almost like yours. Unrecognizable now. Lol. Also installed a transponder and engine monitor with fuel flow. My EGT didn’t work when I bought the plane so installed an engine monitor. Fixed my PC and Brittain autopilot (I hope). I needed 4 servo boots replaced.

My IA did my yokes this morning. He actually used a rivet gun to drive the pin out as suggested above. Great minds think alike I guess. My shafts were ok but he suggests that I prepare to get some sort insert (?) on order as we probably should beef up that end. He commented on how very thin the tube was is on these yoke shafts and this strange set screw that comes in from the size. I’m not so impressed this this design. Lol Anyone away of this insert or repair part to beef up the end of the shaft?

Checking out your panel to compare with my original. I see you put the GPS in the old glove box. Nice fit. Curious why you seem to have two DG? Also, what’s this thing that seems to be a speaker in the cigarette lighter receptacle? Sorry, curiosity has me being nosy...

Are you looking for the stock ones? I just modernized my panel and have the original stuff in a pile in my hangar. I also have a 66E

Very interesting. That diffuser behind the radios in mine is disconnected. Took me a while to figure out what it was. I think I now just have an open hose from that port to behind the panel. I can’t find any pics. I’ll try to remember to look tomorrow.

Yes, the main landing gear has press in zerk. This one in the nose gear steering head has threads but it’s smaller than the common 1/4”.

How much do you guys lean during taxi? Back when my plane was still running I had two cases of fowled plugs on run-up and had to lean way out and run up to burn off fowling. It's not clear to me how to tell when the lean is good for taxi.

The thing about Candella measurement is it picks up intensity at a point. If focused tightly enough you could probably match that level with a pocket sized mag light. I suspect that the new WAT is a great light, might be the best, but there is more to the story. Picking a light based on just Candella readings is like picking a wife based solely on cup size. Lol. My X3 has the BMW “Laser” lights. They are super bright, but they had to make them steer into corners and deflect to the sides when turning at stoplights because you can’t see squat outside of the bright zone in the beams. They market the steering headlights as a selling point but honestly they are needed for safety. I keep looking on the web for practical tests of these lights and there isn’t much other than marketing hype or one dimensional lab tests. Some guys shinning their lights on a hangar...but just one model. AVWeb has one video that’s so so. Perhaps that WAT Pro is good for distance, general area lighting, and taxi, but I can’t find good comparative evidence of it. Just to give you an idea for what some potential customers are looking for.

To be clear, I’m not knocking the Aero-Lite. Perhaps it’s a good value, especially if you can avoid the additional price that comes with “airplane part”. I’m a sucker for overpaying for top of the line stuff though. Possible character flaw. lol I mean I bought Bose headsets and I don’t have my PPL yet or a functioning airplane and I’m now at risk of paying a whole lot of money for a landing light and have yet to land a night myself with my currently installed incandescent GE bulb. But the cowl is laying there in the hanger and calling my name “Put a really fancy LED in me, you know you want to...”. I reason it out as: I’ve spent a metric ton of money and time on this plane this year and if I put a good LED in it now it’s one thing I’ll never have to mess with again. I laughed at these new $600 Apple headphones, but found myself watching YouTube reviews on them today. I might need counseling. LMAO

Ok, I think we are confused. Your eBay snapshot is from Aero-Lite, not AeroLed. AeroLed makes the Sunspot. Aero-Lite makes something called Fusion. Are you getting the two mixed up? Sunspot vs Fusion? or did you find some ridiculous deal one day on the Sunspot?

$149? Cheapest I've seen is $650 for Par46