New 252 owner aog in kpoc

[Jetrn]

New mooney 252 owner, not the way to announce it.  But i am bring the plane home to norcal.  The plane has been difficult to start hot.  This morning at 6am in vegas plane was difficult to start.  Flew to pomona sat for 3 hours tried to start normal, tried recommended several different hot starts and flooded technics.  Drove to corona and picked up a new battery and tried a normal start. To no avail. The battery is now on  a tender again.  Any help would be greatly appreciated

[ragedracer1977]

Spark, fuel, air. 

I'll guess spark. The question is why.  Any frayed p leads? Magnetos on tight?

[ilovecornfields]

Fly high and keep a lookout for places to land???

What kind of advice are you looking for? Did you talk to the mechanic who did the prebuy? Any transition training?

[mike_elliott]

5 hours ago, Jetrn said:

New mooney 252 owner, not the way to announce it.  But i am bring the plane home to norcal.  The plane has been difficult to start hot.  This morning at 6am in vegas plane was difficult to start.  Flew to pomona sat for 3 hours tried to start normal, tried recommended several different hot starts and flooded technics.  Drove to corona and picked up a new battery and tried a normal start. To no avail. The battery is now on  a tender again.  Any help would be greatly appreciated

You have 2 of the Mooney Pros, Inc. instructors close by who can help you really learn your new plane, its proper ops and assist you get the most from your ownership. Paul Kortopates @kortopates owns a 252 is an engine guru, A&P and @donkaye is just down the street, so to speak. You will be $$ ahead to get with them vs buying starter adaptors often, etc.

[MIm20c]

Congratulations on your new ride, bravo yankee looks like a wonderful 252.  As the others have mentioned above the starting components can be very expensive. Using up two batteries back to back indicate a mechanical or procedure problem.  Because it has flown a lot lately I’d talk to one of the experienced instructors listed above @mike_elliott by phone and schedule some time to fly with them.  Enjoy the new plane and stick around MS!

[LANCECASPER]

Not sure which starter you have but be careful not to add to the problem by overheating the starter.

 

 

[Jetrn]

I don’t recall seeing a log entry or a placard for the skytec start, i will recheck the logs and look for the placard this morning.  I do limit my cranking and wait a minute or so before another attempt.

[EricJ]

Does the B&C have similar cranking limitations?

 

[kortopates]

You might describe what you are using for a hot start technique. Do you have experience hot starting a prior FI Continental? They all start the same, but which is different from a Lycoming.

[Jetrn]

“kortopates”, i have no prior experience with continental.  I have tried the procedures in the poh, followed recommendations in earlier posts.  Tried starting several different times today as a cold start maybe I’m not priming long enough.  Today i have used 3-4 seconds per the Poh.  I think the plugs are fowled up possibly.  The mags are coming up on there 500hr inspection and I believe the plugs were change a few annuals ago (massive).  These were maintenance items i was planning on doing when I got home, change plugs to fine wire and send mags out for inspection.

[ilovecornfields]

16 minutes ago, Jetrn said:

“kortopates”, i have no prior experience with continental.  I have tried the procedures in the poh, followed recommendations in earlier posts.  Tried starting several different times today as a cold start maybe I’m not priming long enough.  Today i have used 3-4 seconds per the Poh.  I think the plugs are fowled up possibly.  The mags are coming up on there 500hr inspection and I believe the plugs were change a few annuals ago (massive).  These were maintenance items i was planning on doing when I got home, change plugs to fine wire and send mags out for inspection.

I used this service when I first bought my plane and found it to be very helpful at the time. I think you may benefit from their services as well:

https://www.savvyaviation.com/home/savvy-services/savvymx/

 

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Jetrn said:

I don’t recall seeing a log entry or a placard for the skytec start, i will recheck the logs and look for the placard this morning.  I do limit my cranking and wait a minute or so before another attempt.

The starter is the least of your worries.  If it dies un bolt and replace it.  I would be far more concerned with the innards of your engine, they all need lubrication from either the pressure pump or splash.  

I’ve seen two pilots crank engines to failure of the gears in the accessory section.

You need to get a maintainer to check the plugs, mags and fuel delivery before going further.

Clarence

[Davidv]

Welcome @Jetrn!

Did you buy the aircraft in Vegas?  Coincidentally, I also bought my Bravo in Vegas where it hadn't flown very much in the year before purchase.  When we brought it home to FL, we first had difficulty with a hot start in Llano, TX and thought it was just an issue with putting too little or too much fuel into the engine.  Then came the next stop in Atmore, AL.  It was a crisp 37 degree evening after we fueled and tried to start with no luck.  Over the next 4 hours we tried everything including going to dinner and letting it rest for 2 hours.  Still no luck.  It was now evident that we weren't getting a spark.  The next day with the help of a local mechanic we removed the mags and found the left mag had condensation inside.  The mechanic cleaned out the mag, put it all back together and we were on our way.  I know how you feel as a new to you plane owner having your plane down.  After my stranded experience I had new mags installed as soon as I got home.  

I can't say for sure, but the plane had lived in the desert for the last 10 years barely seeing moisture and I'm sure this was a big part of the cause.

[SheryLoewen]

It needs a lot of fuel boast and mixture in when cranking

 Paul L

[Jetrn]

Thank you all for suggestions, input, and to those who reached out to me privately.  A recommended mechanic from west coast mooney group and I worked late into the night on Sunday troubleshooting the problem.  We removed the lower plugs and all were very clean.  The right wire harness tested bad.  The plane is still in kpoc.  Since the mags are near the 500 inspection I will send them out for service.  I am replacing both wire harness and installing all new tempest fine wire plugs.  These items were on my list to be addressed when I got home, unfortunately it happened sooner than later and I wasn't able to do this myself.  Since the plane was down, the next morning I had a 3 hour drive to vegas to pick up the family and then it took us 12 hours to drive to the Sacramento area.  Traffic was pretty bad on Monday.   Thanks once again.

[alextstone]

On 9/3/2019 at 11:15 PM, Jetrn said:

Thank you all for suggestions, input, and to those who reached out to me privately.  A recommended mechanic from west coast mooney group and I worked late into the night on Sunday troubleshooting the problem.  We removed the lower plugs and all were very clean.  The right wire harness tested bad.  The plane is still in kpoc.  Since the mags are near the 500 inspection I will send them out for service.  I am replacing both wire harness and installing all new tempest fine wire plugs.  These items were on my list to be addressed when I got home, unfortunately it happened sooner than later and I wasn't able to do this myself.  Since the plane was down, the next morning I had a 3 hour drive to vegas to pick up the family and then it took us 12 hours to drive to the Sacramento area.  Traffic was pretty bad on Monday.   Thanks once again.

Hang in there...I just passed my first year of ownership, complete with several "surprises" like the one you describe.  I would still do it all over again.