SKI

If your I/A will sign off on it then I would do it myself. Plus you would have redundancy with the handle safety wired and a pipe plug installed when you didn't need the hose barb for draining your oil. Some of the regs are nonsense for 60+ year old tractor engine technology but it is what it is.

Would it work, yes. Would it work better and cheaper, probably. Will your I/A sign off on it at annual, Doubtful. There's the answer unless your I/A will sign off on it you can't really do it.

So I recently bought a J. My transition instructor tried something the first day at lunch and it didn't work. So in my hotel that night I was searching Mooneyspace and found the below procedure around here somewhere. It's dirt simple and has worked every time I have tried it. I'm usually running in 4-6 blades. #1 Mixture, Prop and Throttle all full forward for 10-12 seconds. No Boost pump. #2 Mixture Full lean and Throttle about 1000-1200 RPM (Basically cracked open 1/8-3/16 on mine) #3 Crank till it catches then advance Mixture. #4 Smile and breath A sigh of Relief you didn't just kill your starter and battery.

I bought one off a member here about 6 weeks ago. My hangar is also slightly up hill and only 40' wide so I needed a controlled way to get my J in. I paid $1500 and I think new they are about $2200. Even if you need to pay the $2200 I highly recommend them. They are worth every penny in my opinion. Hanger rash on a wingtip or a screwed up back is way worse than paying the money in the grand scheme of aviation.

I flew from Pennsylvania to the Bahamas twice last year. I had a blast both times. I'm not really a resort type of guy and went mostly to fly fish. I stayed on both Andros and Long Island in January. When I went back in June I stayed with a Bahamian family I met on Andros in January. The locals are really friendly on the out islands if you want a real Bahamian experience and not just sitting by the pool at a resort. You'll never find cool adventures unless you go looking for them. I HIGHLY recommend the Bahamas.

I've recently transitioned to a new to me J as well. All my time was in 172's and Cherokee's. Exactly the same thoughts as you about being heavy in pitch on rotation. My instructor said it's normal as well as the others here. I got in the habit of raising the gear then raise the flaps right after the gear and trim once for the cruise speed you want and away you go.

I think Eric meant make sure the #1 wire from the mag does in fact go to the #1 cylinder ect for all cylinders. That was my initial thought as well.

Regarding the left wing heavy situation are you flying solo? How's your fuel load balanced? I've never flown a Mooney but on my Cherokee both of those seem to matter. Flying solo you have all your weight left of centerline and nothing to counter act it on the right. Add to that you may have more fuel in the left tank vs the right tank. Fuel makes a bigger difference since it's further outboard of the centerline. Like my A&P buddy always says "Never go straight for the jugular" Meaning try simple, easy, logical things first before you go with a more invasive and extreme approach. Just throwing out something to think about before going through the hassle of messing with the rigging.

There's a place in Texas called Aero Comfort. He does interiors and leather wraps Mooney yokes. I've never seen his work in person but pretty much everyone who ever posts about his work says it's amazing. I think he's usually pretty busy but it would be worth reaching out for a quote. His website is pretty good and you can check out his work there. aerocomfort.com

All of what A64 says is pretty much true. I've worked in machining/fabrication for 28 years. I'm not building a Vans but I am building a Bearhawk Patrol. I get my Lazer cut parts done 1/16" undersized then use a piloted double margin drill and open them up to size. A Lazer cut hole or edge if you could magnify it looks similar to an edge cut with a cutting torch. It's kind of jagged. The process is essentially the same. Melting metal from the top and blowing it out the bottom of the sheet. Lazer is MUCH more precise but you get the idea. I doubt they pierced the holes on the perimeter, Everyone knows not to do that and it would have left a really noticeable defect. They probably pierced on center but moved straight out in one axis to the perimeter then started the circle cut. All CNC machines pause when they change direction (I own 5 of them). It's only a millisecond but it's there. So that millisecond pause on the perimeter probably caused a overburn spot and they probably led off the perimeter at that same spot to go back to center to end the cut so even more overburn. It would only be a few thousandths but when you start dimpling which stretches the material it's tearing at that imperfection. My mills will do the same thing because the endmills deflect, VERY minimal but it's there. They should have led in and out using a spiraling tool path. That eliminates that hard change in direction and millisecond pause. That's my thoughts as a CNC guy but I'm not an airplane manufacturer.

Fun fact, I actually base my Cherokee out of KIDI Indiana county/ Jimmy Stewart field. Jimmy was from Indiana. The local EAA chapter actually found one of his old Cessna 310's in Texas that was about to be scrapped. They bought it, restored it and mounted it on a pole to act as a windvane. It's actually pretty cool. It swings nose into the wind and the props even spin. I look right at it from my hangar.

I just tighten mine up till I see the filter housing start to deform. I've never had one come loose yet.

As another date point, I fly a Cherokee 180 with the same engine as a C Model. I don't keep exact numbers on what it costs me annually but I'm pretty sure it's in the neighborhood of $10K. I do owner assisted annuals with an I/A friend of mine, He charges me very little and I do 95% of the work. It adds up quickly though. My hangar and insurance are $3500 before I ever turn the key. Fuel @10 Gal/Hr. $6/Gal. is another $3600 for 60 hours as example. There's usually another few thousand dollars of repairs needed throughout the year. It is absolutely true planes just always need something fixed. I think Mike's # of $17K above is probably pretty close depending on where your based at. Could be a little more or less but If I'm at 10K in a Cherokee a retract will definitely be 30-50% more than me.

When a bolt twists off it's really hard to get a drill started on center. The face is just too knarly even with a center punch. Find a drill bit that's just under the size of the hole through the casting. That'll keep the drill bit straight and on center. Drill lightly cause the bit is going to be large enough to wipe out the threads. All your trying to do is use the larger bit to get enough of a center in the twisted face to use the proper size drill bit for an easy out. Twisted off bolts can be a real bitch. They sometimes throw a burr on one spot where they twist off. LH drill bits are definitely good if you can find one. Have you tried using a dentist pick and see if you can just wind it out? I've had some that a nuclear bomb wouldn't break free and I've had some that you can wind the broken piece right out. Good luck, Sometimes their easy and sometimes anything but easy.

As an add on to the apprenticeship programs. I'm a machinist by trade. I went to a vocational school 11th and 12th grade. Started working 2nd semester of my senior year at a local shop. Said shop hired me after graduation and I spent 7 years with them. In school we did a lot of book work along with running machines. It barely scratched the surface of what I learned once I actually got out into the field for a year or 2. Schools of any kind can only squeeze so much information out of the time available. On the job training is invaluable, The real world differs greatly from a classroom in all the trades. I would much rather a 20 something year old A&P with a few years of actual experience working on my plane rather than someone fresh out of some fancy school. Not that the schools don't make some great mechanics but just cause you went to a school doesn't mean you are any better than someone who didn't.