Fritz1

I replaced my no back spring about 4 years ago at 1500 because I had the part, knowing what I know now I woul leave it alone. The risk of the spring failing is minuscule and outweighed by the risk of something being damaged in the installation and/or the new spring failing, if you call Brian Kendrick or Don Maxwell they will probably say the same thing, ain't broke ain't fix it

I had a G- model in the late 90s, flying restoration, stock about 137 KT TAS, with alle mods available at the time it went to 155 KT, today there is the Lopresti cowl which gives you another 5 KT, however all that stuff in combination is expensive and time consuming to install, better all bought together installed already . The most bang for the buck is delivered by flap gap seals, aileron gap seals and elevator and rudder hinge covers, all sold by Lasar, a honest 3kt, weight maybe 1lb, after that comes a cowl closure, maybe another 2 kt, once you start, hard to draw the line where to stop, enjoy the journey!

yep, see it now, standard dry weight on the TIO-540 AF1B is 493 lb, anything that takes weight off the nose is good, real world mid weight cruise on my FIKI Bravo is 185 KT at FL190, 2300/30" 18.5 gph 100 dF rich on 1st EGT to peak, TIT 1580, CHT about 380 standard atmosphere, which computes to about 78% power I think, about the absolute max you want to run continuously, in the extreme I think the FIKI Bravo will reach 215KT at 25k, fuel flow probably has to 22.5-23 gph to keep temps in check, I have never tried that high and that much power

Baffles look good, maybe small kink in front of pilot, not sure if there is a leak where throttle cable goes through firewall, all small leaks add up

Best recollection from Lycoming manual Bravo engine is 550 lb, 700 lb sounds like ship weight of crated engine, not sure about the alternators

The factory baffles have lots of leaky spots even when in good shape, around alternators, oil cooler, starter, anywhere with light shining through is a leak, If the rubber baffles are fine check if metal baffles between cylinders are installed correctly, check ignition timing 20 before TDC, your CHTs are at least 20 dF higher than what I see at 30/23 18.5 gph

Bought the Bravo 7 years ago, had considered an Encore, lots of tradeoffs, talking to shops and owners I eventually decided for the Lyc, tad noseheavy, typically about 20 Bravos for sale on controller / tradeaplane, reading ads and logs and inspecting planes you will arrive at a good decision, enjoy the journey!

Put Triflo into the tail pivot bearing, the entire tail pivots around that bearing, think 5/16" bolts

if memory serves me right part 11 has the long pins and also the slot, you can take the armrest off by removing the nut from the pivot pin of part 11, that will already tell you something, once you have it apart you will see that it is quite simple, quite capable to support an arm, but not a person's body weight

take seat out, take backrest off, take armrest off, roll backrest cover up from bottom just far enough so you can access armrest mount and things will reveal themselves. In my airplane one of the welded rivnuts that go through the backrest frame was damaged, drilled it out and replaced it.

Jimmy's guide is a good start, for sale ads and especially actual sales allow you to develop comps, actual sales figures are hard to come by and take some digging, the best comp is an airplane that you have bid on, lost and know what it sold for, from the comps you can extrapolate a fair market value of a particular airplane using Jimmy's formulas. Take your time, read all the for sale ads, any logbook you can find, bid on a couple, inspect a couple and then buy one. The purchase price is the entry ticket, plan to spend at least another 20% of purchase price on upgrades and repairs of a well maintained and frequently flown airplane within the first two years of ownership. Welcome to the adventure!

Tighten the oil injector at the cylinder until it stops leaking

I typically climb at 34" 2400, flow 23.5, 120 kt, max CHT on #4 or #6 390 F, 600 fpm up to 18,000 ft, the Bravo engine is very sensitive to leaking baffles, make sure they are pressed snug against the cowl all around, check with light, seal every nook and cranny with RTV, check baffles between cylinders, the smallest loss of ram air makes a difference, check if the # oil injector is flowing freely, take oil line off, take valve cover off, flush with solvent, blow through with compressed air from both sides, bore scope cylinder, something may be going on

Welcome to the journey, start stacking up an airplane fund, read for sale ads and study log books, when the fund has reached the purchase price you will have accumulated plenty of knowledge and will be ready to jump, kick tires inspect and test fly airplanes, on a C you may spend the purchase price all over again within the first two years fixing it up, the airplane with the lowest maintenance cost during ownership will be the most expensive one to buy, that airplane has logs and paperwork that will fill two bankers boxes, typically sold off market by word of mouth, airplane that is paid for in cash sounds and feels more solid, can never come back to bite you, can be turned back into cash on the hood instantaneously on a rainy Chicago morning at 80 cents on the $ and get you out of a tight spot, enjoy the ride!

clean real well, dust with baby powder or dye penetrant developer, fly airplane, pop cowl and look for traces, some leaks only leak when the engine comes to operating temperature all around, patience and persistence kills all leaks

Friend of mine had his bird painted at Hawk with good results, price within the range quoted above. Like in many other endeavors price is secondary in the end if you plan to hold on to the plane, how thorough is the disassembly, does the guy vaporize the stripper, how is the stripper removed, is there any temperature and/or humidity control in the hangar, do separation lines between colors get sanded or buffed, is there a clear coat over everything in the end, will the tanks be resealed first, does the painter know how to deal with Mooney tanks, i.e. not make them leak again. Besides the stripper going where it is not supposed to go the big question is adhesion, does anything come off 3-5 years down the road. Ask me how I know. Doing it again, I would visit several shops, discuss the project, get quotes and lead times, talk to guys that had work done at that shop and last not least plan to visit once a week to check on progress, bring gifts and encouragement, pay extra down the road for stuff that has not been discussed, this is kinda like building a house, after you have built three you have an idea how to do it, for a really good paint job plan 2-3 months downtime and never ever rush the paint guy, choose wisely and then it takes whatever it takes, hard to extract a disassembled semi painted airplane

fly plane to quiet place within non stop range, sitting outside for a week will not hurt the bird, use canopy cover or internal sun shades

Good going, I had a 68G once upon a time and the cowl closure made a noticeable difference, fly four cardinal headings, note GPS speed and compute average

Reset circuit breaker, if that does not get them moving get svc manual with wiring diagram, look for components that affect both speed brakes like yoke switch

flying into Timmerman field in Milwaukee, rental car and hotel there, 1h drive to OSH, exact date depends on weather

If you have an AOPA legal plan, contact AOPA and find out if one of their AOPA contract attorneys would be available to advise you. Maintenance has been contentious at my airport for a while, clearly state that you can perform owner maintenance on your airplane, clearly state that you can perform A&P work on your airplane if you are an A&P and now it really gets dicey, if so desired that A&Ps can perform work on other airplanes. A buddy of yours might want to have an annual done in your hangar or God beware you might want to open a shop. The ability to do this kinda stuff determines the value of your hangar. I keep fingers crossed!

got about 850 h on factory reman, so far so good, previous owner put it in after about 1100h on original engine for reasons known to him, biggest improvement were Tempest fine wire plugs and replacing dead baffle pieces and sealing all nooks and crannies with RTV, cruise 29" 2400 or 30" 2300, balanced prop at 2300 but seems to run smoother at 2400, flow typically 18-18.5 gph 100 dF rich, hottest CHT in cruise typically 360-380 dF, max TIT 1580 dF, run Phillips XC Victory, change 25h, check mag timing every 100h, only unscheduled maintenance in 650h was replacing turbo waste gate with leaking actuator shaft last year, weakest spot on engine is weld on Y-turbo transition I think, check every oil change, backside with mirror, very happy with the airplane, she ain't perfect but can't think of a better piston single for 2 people on long xc trips year round from the mountains to the prairies

call Cole in GA, be prepared to take the heat out of the situation, competent prebuy may not be doable at aircraft location, prebuy is at the expense of the buyer, if seller flies aircraft to prebuy location offer to reimburse him for the expense in case there is no deal, whoever does prebuy fixes discrepancies if the deal is closed and signs off an annual, plan to spend the amount of an annual on the prebuy no matter if the bird get bought or not, focus on showstoppers, first and foremost corrosion, the purchase is a big commitment, put commensurate effort into the prebuy, be prepared to walk if showstopper found, the journey is the destination, enjoy the ride

as stated before, check everything out on jacks with belly pan off, may not even be the actuator, however the dukes actuator is known to be undersized for the job and may just give you warning before it really fails, I replaced the Dukes with an Eaton in my 68 G model 25 years ago since the motor was burned out, dragged through New York traffic with gear hanging out and burnt smell in the cockpit, think there was a Mooney kit for the replacement, Maxwell, LASAR and our jetdriven know all the pros and cons and ins and outs

bought a new one, but that was 3 or 4 years ago, still have the old one, just in case it might be repairable, looks like mechanical switch with membrane inside