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Let's get the collective wisdom rolling My M20J is fresh out of the avionics shop after installing a G3X panel. Last week when I flew it, the R wing fuel gauge stopped working. Well the fuel senders are old and I am contemplating a switch anyways. The very next flight, when I tried to start the engine I turned the key the plane seemed like the battery was low. I thought it was odd but maybe I spent a little too long updating the navdata with the engine off. I started it with an external source and went flying. Everything seemed normal so I took it on a 2hr XC flight. Today, flying back home I experienced the same behavior and had to use and external source to start up. Now, both COMM radios had an interference of a quick rhythmic "popping" sound. Additionally, in cruise I could see the ammeter was showing some crazy readouts, going from -30 to -290 amps!!! After I landed the ammeter showed a reasonable +2 amps. I tried turning on and off various systems and lights to see what I could find but no clue. Nothing particular happened. I suspect something is shorting the system and draining the battery. Perhaps the fuel sender line (it may have nothing to do with the electrical problem but what the hell)? Any thoughts? Here are some pictures.

aviatoreb has posted this on a different topic, and I think it should be a new topic … and one I'm very interested in it. We'll see how this goes @aviatoreb Great post! I'll see if I can get the history from the other thread. Thanks! Let's turn this discussion properly fully modern. Forget avgas lycosaurus or conty. Forget turbine as they fuel specifics aren't great although they are fantastically reliable and high power/fast. Forget diesel since those were not meant to be turbo boosted for high altitude ops and they are complicated - even though in practice a Mercedes diesel ala Diamond is enticing.... Electric! I will buy a new airplane when I can buy an electric airplane that has the range, speed, and reliability I expect in an airplane worthy of 500-700k of my hard earned dollars. I think that will be in about 10 years when the technology finally catches up? (In current dollars by then). Actually I would be happy with hybrid electric. You know the deal - small gas engine of some kind runs a generator that charges a battery. For take off you let both the gas and the electric motor fuel the prop for high take off power. Then its all electric (charging) for cruise. You get the reliability plausibly of an electric system, with a gas engine as backup - or anyway this is a twin engine reliability in a single shaft. And plausibly fantastic range.... It could be very high power too. Let it be plug in electric so that for short flights you can run entirely on what charge you can draw out of the all - so for some of your flying its pennies per mile. Literally pennies per mile of "fuel" cost. Electric is coming - its just a matter of time. Here is a potential cape air electric air airplane. (Cape air flies around here - remember the tv show wings and their Cessna 402s? I have been on that very exact airplane - it has a sticker on it that says, as seen on wings). https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2019/08/08/cape-air-eviation-alice-electric-plane That's what I want.... but shaped like a Mooney.

Good morning Folks, The electric fuel pump in my bird has developed an auto shut off feature. I have reached to shut it off several times in the last month only to find it already off. I thought I was going crazy but it turns out it's been gas lighting me. I actually saw and heard it pop off climbing through 2500agl a few days ago. The breaker was clearly popped and needed about 3 mins before it could be reset. Is this the typical failure mode for a Klixon or should we be digging deeper?

I am guilty of abusing the electric fuel pump in my a/c. The switch for the electric fuel pump in my '67C is way over to the left in the row of toggle switches at the bottom of the panel. It is hidden from vision by the left portion of the yoke that usually has my left fist around. I really just can't see it from my normal position. I usually remember to switch it on at the times when we are supposed to, but it amazes me how often I forget to turn it off. Occasionally I'll turn it on to switch tanks, then notice many minutes later that I forgot to shut it off because I got distracted by something else. I'm tired of abusing that poor thing so I'm thinking about moving the position of that toggle switch to a more visible location. I'm also thinking about connecting it to a toggle switch with a light on the end. Any thoughts? I stopped by an auto parts store the other evening and they have a nice selection of what seem to be rugged, illuminated, toggle switches with high amp ratings (e.g. 30 A). Thanks.

The press-to-test switch for my annuciators broke during an avionics install. One of the lugs on the bottom. It is an ALCO (now Tyco) MSP205R switch. A DPDT switch. Not made any more. Also, no info on the switch connections. I think that the replacement is an MPA206R. Anyone know if this will work or have any idea how to test the terminals so I can figure out what wires to connect where? Thanks very much.

I had this functioning elevator (empennage) electric trim system removed from my M20C: Aero Trim Electric Trim System 800ET It was installed by a previous owner in 2000 with a yoke mounted switch. It was made by these folks, but is no longer available: http://www.aerotriminc.com/index.html My info and documentation on it is scant, but there does appear to have been a 337 filed for it. It's a pretty basic unit. At my prebuy the MSC mechanic commented that he rarely sees these still working, but mine worked ok until removal. I took it out because it was hooked to the avionics master and made the trim wheel hard to turn by hand with it on and impossible to turn with it off. I figured it was just a matter of time before the thing failed and froze my trim wheel, which is easy enough to manage without it. Anyway, I offer it for the price of shipping in case there's anyone out there who might need parts to fix theirs - I doubt it's worth installing if you don't already have one.