Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'troubleshooting'.
-
Hello! I own a 1976 Mooney M20F named Loreto. This is my first post on a Mooneyspace forum, so please forgive me if I do it wrong. ◡̈ On 2/17 I heard a slow, deep, repetitive grinding noise coming from my plane after landing that I had never heard before. It was very loud and coming from within the airframe somewhere below and slightly behind the front left seat. The green GEAR DOWN indicator light on the panel was flickering a little. When I turned the master switch off, it stopped. When I turned the master switch back on, the sound and flickering returned. If I sat very still, I could feel my seat vibrating a little in sync with the sound. The DPE sitting next to me in the plane when this occurred suggested it may be an issue with my electric landing gear motor so I took the plane to the only maintenance facility on the airfield, Foothill Aircraft at Cable Airport. The mechanics at Foothill are hypothesizing... "a spring is snapping back and hitting a switch to tell the motor to continue to push the landing gear down even though it is already down and every time the spring extends the problem continues to repeat until the power is cut off." Foothill put the plane on jacks and has still not been able to recreate the problem. This makes sense because during our flight the noise only began after we were on the ground, not in the air. Worth mentioning is that my last flight was an IFR checkride where we shot three approaches in a row and extended and retracted the gear in the air twice with no issues before our final landing which was also totally fine and the landing gear came out and locked correctly. It was only after taxiing and sitting idle during shutdown that the noise began. The sound was so alarming that I do not feel safe to fly my plane again until the issue is properly identified and corrected. I am not a mechanic so my personal knowledge is limited when it comes to understanding this issue. I’m not even entirely sure it is related to the landing gear actuator or motor; or if either of these service documents (SI M20-112 or SB M20-190B) are even connected to this issue since I recently had it removed and shipped to LASAR for a complete overhaul (March 2021) and my actuator is a ITT LA11C2114 which is technically exempt from these service announcements. Have any of you heard this sound / had this problem before? Any feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
- 44 replies
-
- 2
-
- m20f
- electric gear
-
(and 7 more)
Tagged with:
-
For those with electric flaps on a F model, could use some troubleshooting help. My 75 F has the slider flaps lever. It has detects for the 15° and 33° positions. This morning while doing the pre-flight, I extend the flaps and when I went to retract them, they stayed down. I slid the lever up and down a few times and they finally retracted. I was not able to reproduce the problem. When I went to takeoff, I extended the flaps and they went down to the correct position. I tried to retract them and they stayed down, I moved the lever to full flaps and they moved down to 33° but wouldn't retract. Back at the hangar, I slid the flap lever back and forth a few times and nothing happened. I shut down and pulled all the breakers except the flap's breaker. I left the flap lever in the up position and pulled the breaker and cycled it a few times. I could hear a relay click near where the flap motor should be. On one of the cycles of the breaker, the flaps retracted. Anyone know how the flap motor works on my model? Anyone ever had to have a flap motor rebuild or replaced? If so, where/who did the work? Thanks for any help!
-
My 78' M20J has had a couple of odd electrical happenings the past couple of flights and want to see if there are any experts or fellow owners who have had the same issues and found the culprit or if these could potentially be all from a similar issue? Issues: - Wobbling Ammeter (going to first try Don Maxwells suggestion of cleaning Master Switch and connections here), but I have noticed that over the last two flights the high/low warning light has come on and instead of a slight wobble it is doing about a 1/4 deflection in the wobble that is pretty big. Unfortunately I just found the article so I need to go fly and see if putting pressure on the contacts stops the issue. In flight intermittently the voltage will go to 14.3V when wobbling and then return to a normal 13.9V-14V reading. - I replaced the Battery/Master solenoid (with sign off from A&P) because it was original to the airplane and was in bad shape with the SkyTec PMA'd one, but when I turn the master on it always clicks the solenoid, but does not always immediately power everything up. I usually have to cycle it a couple of times to get it to actually provide power. Once it works it works though and has never shut off after engaging. I put a volt meter on it and the battery has around 12.9V on the front of the Solenoid but only 12.3V once the master is turned on on the back side of the solenoid. Is this a normal drop? On my JPI 830, it is around 11.9V in the cabin. I have not removed the JPI to get a reading at the terminal, that is just the reading on the screen. Plane starts fine and seems to have enough power. Is this kind of drop pretty normal under load and I am being overly paranoid or does that sound like something is amiss? - I pulled the top and bottom cowl to inspect my alternator and starter wiring and I have concerns about wire integrity and potential corrosion. As you can see from the photos I attached, there is a seemingly pointless splice in the line going to the starter (image 0598) and the alternator wiring has lost a majority of its shielding and is fraying badly. Is it time to replace one or both of these or is this "normal"?