Search the Community

Howdy again all, I am in the process of pulling my first annual on my E model. Once I got it up on the jacks, I found that the emergency gear extension would not work due to improperly rigged system. Pulled the gear motor assembly off, and sure 'nuff, the spline coupler that engages the emergency system was FUBAR due to barely riding on the end of the motor shaft. So, Step 1. Kick my own butt repeatedly for not buying an early Mooney with a J bar Step 2. Shake my head at how fragile this electric gear system really is Step 3. Call LASAR The awesome folks there had a spline in stock, so I bought and installed it. While putting things back together, I could not get the cable from the cockpit to seat into the spline. Pulled the clutch back apart, and found that the coupler has something wrong internally (burns perhaps?) where it will not fit correctly over the splines of the cable or motor end of the mechanism (very tight fit, and stops before engaging fully) The un-buggered end of the old coupler fits just fine and appear un damaged on inspection so I know that both my cable ends and my motor ends of the system are good. The question comes: has anyone else had trouble with this? Do you think that this coupler has a minor manufacturing defect, or am I doing something wrong here? Any advice from experience would be appreciated!