Removing an Astrotech LC-2

[NicoN]

The above clock is out-of-order for a long time. It never worked, my co-owners tell me.

Okay, may be it is completely damaged. But the most probable reason is, that only the battery is dead.

The bigger problem seems to remove it from the panel!

It is mounted from the back-side of the left small more or less tri-angular panel. That is where also the starter key and OAT-gauge is located.

From down to top it is starter-key, LC-2 and OAT.

I first tried to get my hands back into the panel, but it turns out that I have not enough joints in my arms.

 

Any idea, how to remove the LC-2 or remove the left panel with minimal risk of damamging something?

[N201MKTurbo]

Remove the turn coordinator and reach through its hole to get to it.

[NicoN]

Okay, I will try that

[PTK]

If it's mounted from behind the panel you need to you can loosen that entire subpanel the clock and tc is in and lift it outwards enough to get access behind it. There are two screws at the top which are hidden by glareshield and two underneath that screw upwards along the bottom. Loosening and lifting the glareshield a little helps.

[EricJ]

Let us know if you get it working.   I tried to revive the one that was in my panel in the same spot with only partial success.

 

[N201MKTurbo]

6 hours ago, EricJ said:

Let us know if you get it working.   I tried to revive the one that was in my panel in the same spot with only partial success.

 

I had one in my old plane. The problem was mostly with their home made tactile switches. I seem to recall that I was able to get a strip of paper between the contacts, put a bit of pressure on them and drag the paper out, burnishing the contacts. This got everything working.

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I had one in my old plane. The problem was mostly with their home made tactile switches. I seem to recall that I was able to get a strip of paper between the contacts, put a bit of pressure on them and drag the paper out, burnishing the contacts. This got everything working.

Thanks, that was enough to get it working the rest of the way.   Seems pretty solid now.

[NicoN]

Okay, removing the turn-coordinator worked for me.

You can push it gently back into the panel an then have enough room to remove the clock through the bigger cutout of the turn-coordinator.

The problem of my clock was not only that the battery (one AAA-cell) was missing. i guess, there never was on in.

It did not work for me to simply push  a new AAA battery into the socket. Finally, I removed the original battery holder and bolted a new plastic one in place.

Now, the clock works at least. For the timer, I think there is a button cap missing. Therefore the "RST"-function is about 3mm deep and I can push it only with a ball-pen.

Maybe I have to make my own cap.

[PTK]

Sounds like a pita if you have to remove the clock every time it needs a battery. Maybe you can connect a longer wire and stow the battery holder down under the panel so it's more accesible. Clocks usually have a keep alive wire to ship's battery. I wonder if yours can be converted by simply adding a fuse. 

 

[NicoN]

Thank you PTK. I have seen that drawing, too.

From that drawing, i thought that there must be voltage comping directly from the battery to feed the clock before the master relay.

10-40 Volts DC and something  about "neglectible" power consumption was another indication for this Kind of power supply.

Surprise, surprise. the only wire is feeding a lamp and the clock itself is powered by a battery.

The effort to remove the clock is about 10 minutes, so this is okay every 2 years (let's see how it works).