Arc autopilot repair

[danblell]

Hey Guys!  First post!

 

I have a 62 M20C with a factory installed arc autopilot.  Its in the picture just above where the pilot's right knee would be.  When activated, it rolls the plane left.  No settings make it level or turn right.  Is this something easily fixed?  or is it likely expensive?

 

Also does anyone know of a shop that repairs ancient autopilots in the LA/TX/AR/MS area?

 

Thanks!

Daniel

 

Picture at http://ntxac.com/n6500u/n6500u_26.jpg

[Marauder]

The Arc series were commonly found in Cessnas. Never saw one in a Mooney. Looks like it was a retrofit. I would check out AutoPilots Central. http://autopilotcentral.com/?page_id=9

I'm sure there are others than can work on it. They are in OK.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[dcrogers11]

Welcome Daniel,

Autopilots Central located in Tulsa, OK is one of the best around.  Unfortunately, the old ARC system in your Mooney is one that hardly anyone will want to work on as I had the same unit in my 64C.  They'll tell you that you'll end up spending what could be a considerable amount of money on a 50+ year old system that no one supports and won't last very long.  I'm presently pulling my ARC A/P system and installing the Stec 55X along with an all new Garmin stack.  If you do find someone that can work on yours and need parts, I'll have some REAL cheap A/P parts.  BTW, and I may be wrong, but the ARC installation in your panel isn't where the factory installed them.  I've attached a picture of my ARC intalled in my old panel.  It was installed at the factory and has the Mooney logo.

 

Again, welcome to the forum.

Don 

[FoxMike]

Dan,

Many years ago I owned a 1964 E model.  I wanted to add an autopilot and found the only one eligible was a Brittian B2D.  The reason is the ailerons which were used until 1965.  The ARC you have were designed to work with those ailerons.  If you give up on the ARC which might be the best thing to do and if you want another autopilot, you will probably have to change the ailerons.  I put the B2D in my airplane along with a lot of "201 mods".  The result was an airplane that went fast but the increased flow over the old style ailerons required more force to move them than the servos could muster.  I elected to replace the ailerons with the later style ones to get reasonable performance out of the autopilot.  I tell this story because I know very few autopilot people remember that Mooney built two two types of ailerons.  It might be you could find a B2D and install it.  This would work OK  unless you have a modified airframe.  Good luck in finding a reasonable solution.

[danblell]

Thanks guys much appreciated!!