Fritz1

everybody has their own way of doing things, 2000 rpm on cold engine not good though, I preheat below 50F if I can, which should add to about 10C, mixture rich, full throttle boost pump injection for 4-6 sec depending on temp, gotta feel it, throttle close, open throttle 1.5-2 turns, start, she usually fires within one revolution and runs at about 1000 RPM, immediately lean as much as you can to keep the plugs from fowling, keep RPM at 1000, I have a slick start mag booster, $1000, run 3 wires, solves in particular hot start problems, taxi out at 1000-1200 rpm, for takeoff you want at least 160 dF oil temp for the density controller to work right, otherwise good chance for overboost at full throttle and bootstrapping when reducing power especially with single weight oil, the Slick mag booster, tempest fine wire plugs and Phillips XC work well in the Bravo engine

Interesting topic, I replaced the discs when I bought the Bravo, they were 17 years old and they did not fail the test at 70F, but the shop that had done the prebuy recommended replacing them, ball park they said replace every 7 years, ride became significantly smoother after replacing the discs, I put the plane on jacks if I do not fly it for more than 2 weeks, maybe that helps a little, or just makes me feel good, so if the test in the service manual is not really reliable since it does not specify a temp, when do you replace the discs??

as stated supra, the ammeter will show a discharge no matter if the GPU is connected directly to the #1 battery or to the GPU connection, the number to watch is the battery voltage. If your GPU puts out 15A and the aircraft draw is 10A the battery voltage should not go down because the battery is not being discharged but rather being charged. Run 10A draw for 45 min, which would deplete 3/4 of the battery capacity, if the voltage does not drop at all the GPU is working fine

first thing I would do it connect the GPU to the battery that you are using with jumper cables, just be very careful, this will tell you whether the GPU is working, others more knowledgeable will chime in regarding the ground power plug

Amazing story, thank you for sharing!

Jimmy Garrison at GmaxAmerican used to have valuation tables for the J, not sure when he has updated them last, can't hurt to call him, best way to find value are recent transaction values, in lieu of that discount listing prices by appropriate percentage, buying an airplane I found that the most exact way to determine value was loosing out on a bid and getting the number that the airplane actually sold for

Think Jerry's wife still sells them, it is his stuff, he was a fixture for decades, think video classes would be great, years ago my wife had a malfunctioning dishwasher, I could not figure out the problem, my best mechanic could not figure out the problem, eventually my wife found a youtube movie that explained the problem and the solution, ordered $27 worth of parts which fixed the problem, bottom line youtube videos work and they will help to document tribal knowledge that is otherwise undocumented

signs of life, good news!

I have a set of Jerry Manthey's binders and they are a good complement to the service manual, still, 80% of the knowledge is tribal knowledge, a lot of that resides in the heads of a couple of guys at retirement age and beyond, documenting that tribal knowledge will be good for everybody

think in person class is a starting point, another part are instructional videos and online shop classes with Q&A ability with a worldwide audience. With the piston maintenance and support infrastructure degrading owners have a vested interest in acquiring expert knowledge and will be ready to pay for it

what is redline CHT on that engine? what do valve faces look like? if engine was delivered with fuel flow so low that redline CHT was exceeded this may have damaged the engine and you may have a recourse against the shop, lawyers will chime in, do you still have a primary that reads CHT in F? if yes, what max did that read? the $80,000 question is whether that engine is damaged or not and how to determine this right now, engine guys will chime in, I would call a couple of engine shops and ask them off the record on the phone

C&W in Caldwell NJ is a well established MSC, they did good work for me while my aircraft was based there. A lot has been written about the do's and dont's of prebuys. The way I have seen it done successfully is buyer pays for prebuy, if he does not like what he sees buyer walks. The prebuy focuses on different things than the annual, mostly things that money cannot fix like some ugly forms of corrosion. If aircraft is bought prebuy is expanded into an annual. Location of the prebuy can be an issue. A lot of shops will only do a prebuy at their location. About 15 years ago I asked a seller to bring his aircraft to my location so I could do a prebuy with my mechanic. The deal was I either buy the aircraft or the seller gets $1,000 for his efforts, he was about 2.5h away. I did not buy the aircraft, paid the seller for his efforts and knew more than I did before.

PM me if interested in how to get a refund

same here, kinda like the minder, serves as a ground power supply, can run avionics, lights etc, two batteries 24V 10Ah each, thus 20Ah, run 20 amps for 30 min you are already down half your capacity already, minder puts out about 5A at 24V, tops off batteries over night, my first set of Concords lasted about 6.5 years each, but I agree, the minder can mask a dead battery, doubt that it can boil off electrolyte gel even at 100F, but not an EE

hard to tell, done correctly wing may be better than new, Don Maxwell in Longview TX is probably most knowledgeable about the stub spar replacement, give him a call

Martin, that is a good one, never heard of a connecting link, think the chain is riveted like a Shimano racing chain, there you use a chain splitter and then have to remove a link to insert a connecting link, would not want to split the trim chain, why do you want it out? can't you get it out without splitting it?? -Fritz - others more knowledgeable will chime in

clean everything with mineral spirits, spray with baby powder or white dye penetration developer, tighten connections on oil return line from cylinder, run warm up engine on ground an look for oil traces, this may take a couple of tries, oil may run along engine quite some distance, persistence will let you find and fix the oil leak

Do continuity testing and learn your system the best way you can, find an avionics shop that to work with that helps you figure out what you can't figure out by yourself. The GS has 4 wires: Deviation +/- , Flag +/- , one of them is most likely interrupted somewhere and not connected to the autopilot, typically 4 wires come out of the 430W and there is splice so 4 wires go to HSI and 4 wires go to autopilot. That splice would be my primary suspect and is probably buried deep in the harness, impossible to get to, this stuff can take quite some time to debug, ask me how I know... May be easier to run 8 wires directly from the 430W tray. Taking the radio stack out and taking one of the 430W connectors apart, miniature Garmin pins, shielding, crimping tools, soldering in tight spaces, heating shrink tubing, tucking everything away so it does not get caught or break, best done by somebody who has done it for a living for quite some time...

David, yes, second Brian Kendrick, he is the G1000 guru, if this has happened in another plane before he has seen it, if this has not happened before he will drill down and get to the bottom of it. -Fritz

I have used Shell 15W50 for many years without any issues, like the color of the can, a couple of years ago my A&P IA told me it causes valve sticking in Lycoming Engines, switched to W100 Plus, always preheat below 40F, lots of people and shops that I spoke to swear by the Phillips XC, had a long phone call with a Phillips engineer and he sold it to me, running XC Victory for 200h now, no valve sticking, oil consumption about 7-8h for the the quart, the W100 Plus burned at a rate of about 5h/qt, when I switched to Phillips I immediately realized the oily bottom plugs that I had seen from the Shell W100 were a thing of the past, my hunch is, and I do not have any proof, that the Phillips filled up the valve guides to some extent, no sticking yet, everybody besides my A&P IA assures me that the valve guides will never stick from the Phillips, he ran a fleet of Robinson helicopters with Lycoming engines for while and swears that anything but W100 will get their valves stuck eventually, let's see, like the Phillips XC, if I ever sense valves getting stuck I will switch back to the W100 at least for two oil changes in summer, so a lot of subjectivity, anybody got hard evidence and test results, W100 - Phillips XC regarding valve sticking?

call RAM, if they don't know, call Brian Kendrick in San Marcos TX, he usually knows more than other people

Don, the day will come for all of us, ever thought about flying model airplanes? did that as a kid and plan to eventually revert back to that. -Fritz

slides right off in heated hangar, if sitting outside use TKS fluid or alcohol to get rid of surface ice

Fuel gauge on top of wing is independent from fuel senders in wing, top of wing gauge has float which may have gotten stuck

buy FAA file from aerospace reports company, they also do escrows