Dustoff49

The good news in all this regardless of the several topics and concerns it has raised, is the shop is taking care of the fixes, they have also taken a step back and investigated how and why it happened and have made some positive changes to processes so it doesn't happen again. We are waiting after the holidays for them to fly to my location and fix it onsite. We will also do a few engine oil ground runs and flushes before a flight. I have oil analysis twice before the event as baselines. I have captured this oil for analysis and will perform one a few hours after the repair and oil flushes to determine if any other bearing damage occurred. If it is determined the 1415 hour engine needs further engine repair they are going to cover it. I am not an A&P but have been building and racing engines for nearly 42 years. Have seen some catastrophic failures and many types of contaminated oil analysis. So far this one seems to have been captured early enough by the filter that it won't be a problem. Will keep the thread updated in the next couple weeks. Thanks

Happy Update. The Shop called me this morning with total transparency and owned up to it being an unsupervised intern. He was removing the lower plugs and the Plug wire was slightly seized and rotated the plug out. Instead of grabbing experienced help with a better solution he used a crow's foot with an extension wedged it against the pushrod tube and commenced to torqueing the other 7/8 wrench. I guess he banged it several times. The shop is sending DOM and IA who completed the annual up with all new parts, fixing it , performing an engine oil flush with new filters a few times after the fix and then fly it back down to them after 3-4 hours and once again change oil and filter. After each flush send to blackstone for analysis and determine if any further maintenance is required. I wish more shops had this stance and leadership when things go wrong and its their fault. Hopefully crisis averted but they assured me if further engine damage was done , IE bearings, lifters , etc. they would handle the repairs with no expense to me. Thanks for listening.

No its always had the Tempest Plug in it. It could have been a crow's foot 7/8" it would sort of line up. But the impact loosening a plug would have to be massive to dent and bend the pushrod. The impressions close up are the same on both tubes though indicating a tool was used. Possibly the pushrod rubbing up and down initially made the bigger mark then it started rotating again once it clearanced.

Thanks for the support. I have been flying in GA over 40 years and this situation is a first for me. Unfortunately it is a very reputable known shop. Hopefully the DOM will call me today with a solution.

I thought the same but the damage is inboard of the plug an inch or so, you would have to really work hard with a boxed-in wrench to dent it this hard and damage the tube & pushrod. Engine was removed in early July and didn't go back till early Sept almost two months waiting on the engine cradle to be fixed. The exhaust system was removed for repairs also so it didn't have anything attached under the cylinders. Hopefully the shop will contact me tomorrow with some answers.

Recently got the Mooney out of an extensive annual. Fixed a bunch of small issues and 3 Major ones. Engine Mount Assembly Repair that required engine removal, New Front Gear assembly from Laser and new push/pull main landing gear tubes. Mooney Service Center completed the work and she flies great. Unfortunately after 5 hours , on what seemed to be a normal runup and takeoff, Tower states I am trailing smoke on departure and even before I had retracted the gear, the tower states it is grey in color and coming from the lower cowling. So I immediately do a 180 tight pattern and safely land. No engine oil pressure lose or high temps. I taxi back to my ramp/hangar and shut down. Exit the aircraft to be greeted with a very large oil leak covering the belly, exhaust and front landing gear. Thank God Above no fire occurred. Push into the hangar and let it cool down. Pull the upper cowling not much to see but definitely oil coming from below an area under Cylinder 3. Upon lower cowling removal I find a severely dented and cracked #3 Intake Pushrod tube. I then find #1 Cylinder Intake tube has the same impression dent nearly identical to #3. Pictures attached. Suspect the Pushrods are also hurt my local mechanic removes both rocker covers and pushrods. Both are heavily damaged and bent. Extremely fortunate I didn't have catastrophic engine failure due to fractured pushrods etc. Now moving on to how this happened. It didn't go into annual with this damage and it has flown fine for five hours until the tube fractured. Based on the impression on the tubes it is suspect when the shop removed the engine they either dropped it or rested it improperly and the weight of the engine leaning on poor supports crushed into the tubes. Regardless waiting for the shop to respond !

Sarasota Avionics got it done !!! New retraction tubes fabricated and a complete re-rig and testing on the landing gear. Flew it out today.

Pre-buy and Annual were done prior to the purchase as one event. Throughbred Aviation in Lexington. Unfortunately I was not on site when pre-buy was complete and relied on the Broker. Fortunately Sarasota Avionics is doing a once over on the Aircraft while there and the 2025 Annual is scheduled with them.

Been almost a month since I started this thread. Had some delays with work but finally got the Ovation up on Jack Stands and Belly Pans off. I am located in Brooksville, FL and Flew it "Slowly" to Venice, FL (Sarasota Avionics). There Main Hangar down there is a Mooney Service center. After some consult with Don Maxwell this is where I decided to go. Dan and Dave there immediately began troubleshooting. The Black collar was indeed jammed on the jackscrew against the motor housing. The Motor is fine. That is the good news. Bad news is both Landing gear Main Tubes (may not be proper name) are bent. Right one was bent very bad. Left one slightly. These have been bent just didn't know it. Whoever had serviced the landing gear rigging in the past didn't noticed and adjusted around the bent tubes. Adjustments were marked with a sharpie on tubes.... Amazing. They had them out of adjustment so far it stressed the rod end links on the front of the rods (where the cotter pins go through) and they used safety wire through the cotter pin centers to take up slack. So...... This entire event was a blessing in disguise. Failure of the tubes rod end was imminent ! So the plane sits in Venice till new tubes arrive and a re-rig of the entire landing gear. The good news is Mooney actually has had so many request for these tubes they are about 1 week out from new build up completions . Sorry for the long winded post. Thanks

Meanwhile I had to order some Mooney jack pads to screw in they show up today. I emailed with Don Maxwell and my actuator is so jammed I can't get it to free up the cable with the latch down to release the tension on the motor. He said I will need to remove the cable end and cover to expose the end of the shaft to use an extension and ratchet to free it up if the level won't release it. Once it is freed up you should be able to raise the lever up slightly grab the "T" put latch back in disengage position and pull on the "T" with little to no resistance. Hope to get this fixed soon. Thanks

I was considering the same jamming issue has happened. I am hoping nothing was damaged. I have yet to find an exact explanation or good picture of the small cables the latch and T handle engage. To be clear the 'T handle' was never pulled or moved. But the diagram I have states flipping the latch up vertical is what engages the motor to manually pump the T handle so makes sense this has been jammed. Thanks !

Hello All ! My first post. Bought N2126S July 24. Great flying aircraft ! No issues after pre-buy/Annual June 24. FL based, flew to Ocala for Dinner last weekend. Upon departure the gear would not retract, immediate Gear actuator CB (7.5amp) pops. Reset tried again and same issue. No Horn or gear unsafe light. Flying to home base 15 mins away so left gear down and locked. And of course seatbelt caught the Emergency Gear Latch... I didn't check it in flight but found it up after landing. Researched it read the post, etc. So figured relatching it would fix the issue. Today I took a quick around the pattern flight and had the same issue. Retract fail , No horn or gear unsafe light, CB Pops. Immediately checked that the latch was secure on emergency gear and it was. Reset it attempted gear down. Same. I didn't try the bypass button. Figured its down and locked. Back to hangar and going on jack stands. Any recommendations? Thanks, Jon L