Electrical Question

[DonMuncy]

My panel light circuit breaker popped today. It appears that breaker feeds only the "Radio Lite Bus", which then feeds all the various panel lights.

Can anyone tell me exactly where that Radio Lite Bus is in a K model and how to identify it.

It would be nice having a head start in my search for a short.

Thanks,

Don

[N201MKTurbo]

There are generally two dimmer busses. One for the instrument lights and one for the radios. If you blew a radio dimmer I look for a chafed wire on the back of a radio

[CaptRJM]

I had the same problem several years ago.  It turned out to be the dimmer, which can not be repaired.  It was less expensive to install 2 new MaxDim Dimmers rather than a new Mooney Dimmer.  MaxDim is STC'ed for all Mooneys and it took about 2 hours to install both of them.

[DonMuncy]

I found the radio light buss on the left cabin wall behind the panel.

The problem turned out to be a shorted wire from the buss to some unknown light. With the offending wire disconnected from the buss, everything is good, and all the lights are on. I suspect that somewhere along the line someone disconnected a wire to a radio, instrument, etc. and left the wire loose behind the panel somewhere, which some how found a ground to come into contact with.

[BigTex]

I found the radio light buss on the left cabin wall behind the panel.

The problem turned out to be a shorted wire from the buss to some unknown light. With the offending wire disconnected from the buss, everything is good, and all the lights are on. I suspect that somewhere along the line someone disconnected a wire to a radio, instrument, etc. and left the wire loose behind the panel somewhere, which some how found a ground to come into contact with.

Don, do you think this issue occurred when you had recent avionics work performed?

[DonMuncy]

Gary,

My avionics guys did not charge me for their time in tracking down the short, on the premise that perhaps their work was part of the cause. My belief is that the offending wire was probably loose under there and their work wiggled it close to a ground source. It was actually an hour or two later that I noticed the breaker popped. Checking breakers is part of my start-up checklist, so I should have seen it, if it had happened instantly after their work.