cliffy

I was able to send the crankcase to Tulsa and have it welded and redrilled. There is a service letter that shows to use the next size bolt also, which I did. 1/4-20 up to 5/16-18 on both of the idler gear studs.

Just going through my old posts and surprised that no one wanted to chime in on a real problem. It did happen and was an eye opener. I grounded the airplane. Cogitated about the problem and torn the engine down (O-360). When I removed the rear case the left Idler gear and support post fell off in my hand. This "post is tied into the oil galley so the gear axel has lube. The 2 1/4X20 bolt that hold it to the crankcase had worked loose and wallowed out their respective holes to 2X their normal size. This is where the fine aluminum in the oil came from. Because this post opened up the oil galley the oil pressure went down as the oil sprayed into the rear case area of the engine. because the breather comes off the rear case all that oil spray started to come out the breather where I had no oil before. Because the LEFT idler gear was loose the left mag changed timing slightly all the time causing the slight roughness. Moral of the story? If the engne is talking to you-LISTEN and do your own analytics.

Why? Because it's not LEGAL unless you're an A&P. Simplicity or complication plays no part. There are only about a dozen fuctions that a non A&P can perform on an airplane (and he must be the operator and a licensed pilot) and they are spelled out quit distinctly in "Preventative Maintenance" in Part 43.13 And, the work does have to be signed off in the Mx log book.

This is what my engine was saying a few years ago. Anyone want to venture what the problem was? I started to notice breather oil on my belly when I had never had any before. Then, on one flight I noticed a loss of 7 pounds of oil pressure all of a sudden. Still above mins all the time. At the same time I noticed my left mag just slightly rougher inflight than the right. Enough so only I could tell. It was oil change time so upon draining the oil I noticed fine aluminum powder in the oil. Sent out an oil analysis but it came back as normal. Sent in the filter for microscopic check and it came back normal. What would you do? What was wrong?

When I was there I don't remember "months" backlog but they do work well and the price is hard to forget.

My 64C has an Accutrac II and I am very pleased with it. With 7 Type Ratings from 767 down I've flown a lot of autopilots, done CAT III Autoland etc and for what this huff and puff A/P does, it does it well. I use it ALL the time in GPS track. I don't have Alt Hold yet but I will as i just went by the Tulsa shop last week and had a nice talk with them Yes, they are backed up due to the Cessna article but in 8 to 10 weeks they should be doing OK. I, too, have replaced one servo bag in 8 years along with one time to the shop for the computer for a couple of transistors. Very Cheap to maintain and it does the job. Had one years ago in a Navajo and had no problem then either. Alt Hold can be added at any time.

I've used one for a couple of years now on my 64C and as an A&P I watch it closely. I do fly IFR and I have a big problem with these filters. Namely, the "fuzzy" stuff gets blown off of the filter screen by rain and now I'm down to just metal screen material and will probably be going back to paper of Brackett filters. I got about 1/2 inch increase in MP over the foam one but I don't think it's worth it considering the above problem.