New Member Intro & Help

[Cris]

Hi to all- I recently acquired a 99' Mooney Eagle which is my 7th Mooney over the years. This one has but 350 Hrs TT but needed a bit of sorting out. I bought the plane in Detroit & immediately flew it to Midwest Mooney M20 in Flora Ill. to upgrade the existing 280 HP Stc to the newer 310 HP Screamin' Eagle Stc. From there I flew to Gulfport Ms to pick up my son, the Naval Aviator/Pilot who is no longer flight qualified due to a hearing loss. We did get him a 3rd class FAA medical however & proceeded on to the MAPA flight clinic in Ft Meyers for a father/son w/e before he deploys to Afghanistan. It was a great opportunity to renew our association with fellow Mooney friends while at the same time becoming proficient with our new A/C. Then back to Gulfport for a day with the family & then Gulfport to Atlantic City in 4+ Hrs where I am based. Wow, this is a lot faster & nicer than my last J model which I loved and a lot easier than the airlines which is a very long two-three stop day. The A/C is now at Air-Mods in Robbinsville NJ for fuel tank leak repairs and a couple of minor issues. One issue that I need help with from this group is the picture below of a switch that no one seems to know what it does or how or even if it works. This A/C has Moritz guages & a B&C backup alternator. Their is nothing in the POH, Maintenance Manual or B&C STC that shows this switch or what it does. Dave at Air-Mods believes it might be used for the Moritz Battery guage to show Amps but that does not answer the Battery +/- position. Anyway it does not seem to work so the question is: Do any of you have this in your A/C & how does it work or have any of you knowledge of how to get it fixed? BTW Mat at M20 Sales, Dave, Tom & Lisa at Air Mods all get high marks for their help, professionalism & efforts to keep me on time & on my way. Same goes to the friends & instructors at MAPA. Thanks for listening. Cris  

      

[danb35]

Looks like it controls how the ammeter will read.  In the top position, the ammeter should read alternator output (it should always be positive, roughly equal to the current load of whatever electrical equipment you're currently using).  In the bottom position, it will read net charge to the battery--positive would mean the battery's charging; negative would mean it's discharging.  In that position, you'd expect it to be reading either zero or slightly positive.

Just an educated guess--hope it helps.

Welcome to MooneySpace!  Looks like a nice plane you've got!

[pilot716]

I saw your a/c on the ramp sunday when I was doing some touch up on my newly purchased 83' M20J. cant say enough about Dave, Lisa and staff there! good luck with your Mooney ,looks great!

[laytonl]

I'll state the obvious.  The switch looks like it says the ammeter can be switched to show the electrical draw (alternator load) or the charging status (battery +/-).  Does it do this?

The ammeter in my Cherokee Warrior shows alternator load and the ammeter in my M20J show charging status.  Maybe you have the choice of either.

Lee

[Cris]

Thanks Dan35 for the explanation & to laytonyl for the confirmation. That helps explain the "How" but at present the switch does not change the Moritz guage to which it is presumably attached. It always reads in the top position (amps) regardless of switch position. There is a separate switch button below the amp/bat guage that gives the voltage of either battery to determine which to use for starting. That does work just fine. I'm hopeful that someone that actually has had an issue with this switch can chime in as to a possible fix. And to Pilot716 the J is a terrific A/C, my last was an 84' & I actually wanted another J due to the 600' T/O distance but ended up with the 310 HP Eagle which is now roughly equivalent for T/O. Thanks for the help! Cris  

[Cris]

Just to close the loop on my post I finally took out the cluster guage & sent it to Moritz Aerospace in Pa. They determined that the amp part of the battery/amp guage required replacement while at the same time replaceing a number of burned out internal lights. That is why the togggle switch did nothing except show the battery voltage. Since it showed voltage I did not realize that the guage itself was broken. Simple $500! repair & the toggle switch now operates as others above thought it should. Good customer service BTW Thanks to all.  

PS Anyone having trouble seeing their Moritz guages at night should know that the lighting is internal & not field replaceable as I asked Moritz to send along a few extra bulbs for the other cluster guage (just in case) which they would not do. Ugh