Sabremech

Catching up a bit to the current status of the M20. Here’s a few more pictures of this bird. I love the old avionics switch which is a choke cable attached to two switches tied together on the engine side of the firewall. Simple but works. Also a few other pictures of the wood wing along with the instrument panel and aux fuel tank. David

Yep. I was amazed at what was underneath the barn dirt! I still have to clean the tailbone before re-installing it. I’m planning to rework the back windows as I absolutely dislike the teardrop window. Going to make it look more like the later C window. Perfect time to do this work is before putting the tail cone back on. David

First thing I wanted to determine was still in airworthy shape was the wood wing. Second was the engine internals and then trying to start it. The wing is in good shape with just a patch or two required on the fabric. The engine was borescope and looked clean and two short duns have been completed. The engine mounts were in really poor shape and the engine sagged so much into the firewall that I couldn’t get it to idle below 1300 RPM. Throttle was bound up with the gear warning switch that is mounted on the engine side of the firewall. New mounts were installed and waiting to run it again after upgrading the gear disks IAW S/B M20-161. Nose gear is almost complete then on to the main disk changes.

I can share with you the data you request. David

Those are the old Firestone disks and are un-obtainium new. I just removed a set from my M20 and am complying with Mooney S/B M20-161 to install the later style Lord disks. David

Adding to the M20 story, here are some pictures of the disassembly and moving from Gary Indianna to Waukegan IL, UGN. It took about 6 hours to disassemble by myself and the load the tail and tail one in my trailer. That was done on a Saturday. On Sunday I came back south and loaded the fuselage section on a 36 foot flatbed trailer with help from a friend. It was a fun drive around Chicago. This all happened pretty quickly as I received pictures and talked with the broker on a Thursday and when I asked how long I had to move it the answer was by the upcoming Sunday. Time to get moving.

It did cool better. Several factors I believe that helped in that were closing off the area behind the prop and ring gear with baffling along with the exit air below the cylinders being equal on all four cylinders. The gaps were adjusted to all being the same. That came from reading about airflow and cooling from a Reno air race engineer. David

Most MSers are probably familiar with the M20 that I picked up. It was listed here as a Free M20A in southeastern Wi. It ended up not being an A model but a straight 0-320 powered M20. I thought I would start a separate new thread to share bringing it back to airworthy. I’ll update this thread as I do the “ inspect and repair as necessary”, or IRAN. This will be probably a year long process to get it flying as my full time job is quite busy and I commute 5 hours home on weekends from Southeastern Wi. My plan is to get it flying, fly it a bit and then sell it. As much as I’d like to keep it long term, it’s just too expensive and I’m not willing to spend that kind of money when I’m done working full time in a year and a half. I’ll start updating this thread from the beginning to where the project is today. Thanks, David

I used Vans RV baffling for the mods I did to the four cowlings. # 1 and # 2 baffles aren’t tall enough for the Mooney cowling and I made those pieces as I didn’t want to rivet on extensions to fill the gap. They are great baffles and fit well along with easy to assemble and install. You can add the little bit of sheet metal on this front two cylinders and be in good shape for quite a while. My FSDO liked that I used known parts for my mods. David

I ended up inspecting the spark plugs as they are fine wires. Cleaned and rotated them as I usually do. Ground run was good with idle at about 650-660 rpm. The owner flew it yesterday and reported no issues. We’ll continue to monitor to see if this was a one off occurrence.

This one has the Tempest fine wires installed. Thanks, David

Happened once. Not a common issue but something entirely out of the normal for this aircraft after all his years of flying. The owner puts at minimum 100 hours a year on his airplane. I have a few things to look at and Will do so. Plan to fly it Friday after looking it over and doing a ground run or two. Thanks again, David

It’s a non turbo J model. Owner is high time in this airplane and this is not normal for it. Appreciate some ideas to just verify. Thanks again, David

This was in the Midwest and it was warm but I don’t believe anything out of the ordinary. Idle setting hasnt been an issue or mixture setting either. Pilot has 3000 plus hours in this bird and it’s the first time this has happened to him. Thanks again.

Nope! Lycoming IO-360 in an M20J.

Pilot reported an occurrence of his engine quitting after landing on rollout. It was re-started and taxied back to the hangar without further issue. I thought I read this happening to another MS’er before. Open to thoughts on what to look for. Thanks, David

I’ve said my piece. We are all genetically unique. Your family history does not have anything in common with mine. Thanks and best to you. David

Again, I never insinuated your skills aren’t top notch. Unfortunately, not all of them are at your level. I feel I’m being diligent in my health and happy with my decisions so far. All the best to you and hope we cross paths in the future again. David

I don’t mind you sharing your thoughts, but don’t appreciate the I’m right and your wrong mentality. I didn’t post my feelings or reasoning behind my decisions to get lambasted nor did I ever suggest you were a quack. I will continue to appreciate your knowledge on Mooney’s but am done with you on this subject. David

Sorry to hear that you’ve been through this. You are correct that my profession is not medical science. What I ask is how much colon cancer is caught or prevented by a colonoscopy? Polyps do not automatically equate to cancer. There are serious risks with colonoscopies as I mentioned and I take those into consideration. I will not go to a colonoscopy clinic where god only knows where these people got their degrees or experience. Obviously you and others don’t agree with my decisions. That’s what makes this country great. We get to make our own decisions. I’m not sure how best to describe my feelings with the medical community now. I just don’t feel they are listening to us and our symptoms and taking the time to really figure out what’s wrong or going on. It’s get you in, say yep, yep and out the door you go with a prescription. Too many of my friends have experienced so many years of pain before the problem progressed far enough for a real diagnosis. By then, it was too late and they lived their remaining years popping pain pills. How do we get the true health care and time we deserve from the medical community?

Nope! The risk of anesthesia along with a perforated colon from someone I have no idea of their skill level is an absolute no. I do Cologuard as I have zero family history of Colon cancer. If something comes back from Cologuard, I will only go to someone my physician recommends. How much colon cancer is actually being detected or prevented? Is this just another money maker for the Colonoscopy clinics?

I had a newer car for less than 12 months due to 5 major visits to the dealer for repairs. It didn’t cost me anything but time but I’ll never own a newer Chevy again. Newer doesn’t mean better. I’m staying away from new especially because of the amount of electronics on them.

I was chasing an oil leak on a J model last fall and thought of UV dye until I saw the price. If memory serves me right, the minimum quantity was a gallon and I’d never use that in my life time. I didn’t search for every possible source so maybe it could be found cheaper and in a smaller quantity. ultimately, we found it using Magnaflux developer. David

Hi Butch, Thanks for your reply. With your long ownership history, do you have any items or areas that I should look at in particular? Thanks again, David

You might be surprised like I am to find there are still more out there. I’m putting together another set of parts to comply with S/B M20-161 for a 62 M20B that still has the original Firestone disks installed. David