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That pesky little Nav light on the aft "stinger" of the wingtip...LED??


PJClark

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Haven't been able to find another thread that answers this question.  But if there is one someone please feel free to lambaste me and point me to that thread...

One of my wingtip "stinger" nav lights is out. the Parts Catalog has it as a 34-022830-85 Whelen halogen bulb that looks like this:

I hate to spend even a dime on one of these that's going to draw more than 1 amp. Has anyone figured out how to replace this with an LED?  A Hangar Elf project perhaps?  If the latter I'd be very interested in the steps, parts, etc.

Or do most of you just ignore this light altogether?

whelen-h35w28v-lamp.jpg

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PJ,

I have two of these LED replacements on my Ovation, and they work extremely well...

https://www.aero-lites.com/product-page/whelen-a508-led-replacement-360-degree-beam-preorder-ships-august-18

Ring the company and ask for Jeremy Rabuck (not sure if he's still there, and if not, anyone can help you) if you want more information not on the site.  Although they show as "not PMA approved", they are ok for install as these lights are not part of an approved anti-collision system for our aircraft.  Temperatures coming from that tiny light "pod" dropped dramatically after I installed them.  I nearly burned my hand after touching the glass after only a few minutes of the old bulbs being powered on, so a nice improvement.

Steve

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@StevenL757  brilliant, thanks!

But now that I look at it and the original---did you have to do something to change the socket this plugs into?  the original has those two wire leads,, the LED has a flat "wedge" plug.  I haven't taken mine apart but I kinda expect to find a socket of some kind that those two leads just jam into--in which case this wedge base is not goingn to fit?

maybe your O came with a differnet socket than my K?

IF it did--anyone have advice on what I'd have to do to change to the Ovation socket if it's different?

I can't imagine someone with an 80s or earlier Mooney hasn't figured this out somehow.

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Well, it's still better to be lucky than good.

I decided the way to solve this was just take the thing apart and here's what I found:

Which according to Mr Amazon should hold the wedge-based AeroLites A508 just fine.  Jeremy Rabuck already responded to an email so I'll send him this pic, ask him to confirm that's  compatible, and I'm in business.

Maybe this also helps another LED-crazed Mooney driver.

IMG_20200311_173843120.jpg

Screenshot_20200311-192553_Amazon.jpg

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That light was part of a service bulletin a while back when Mooney put out a retrofit kit from the old pin base to the new wedge base, I suspect most planes were changed over.

In case anyone is curious, that wedge base just happens to be the same as many automotive LEDs, the trick would be to get one small enough to fit in there and meet the required brightness and angle since that's one of the lights that is required to meet specific standards unlike taxi or recognition lights. (And in the case of my plane, getting the stupid glass part off after some previous replacement used half a tube of RTV to hold it in place....)

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  • 3 months later...

Did you resolve this issue?

I am looking at replacing the nav lights on my K - the original are 'flat' connectors but I think you can just bend the wires over to allow the longer leads to fit into the socket.

However, after reading the above I will be looking at the LED replacement - is this what you used?

 

Chris K

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yes I did. I used the Aerolites 508 LEDs.  My right side had a socket like the Sylvania above, the left one had something completely different.  I took the lamps and the new socket to my Annual at AGL and they replaced both for me...I don't exactly know how they got them in there, didn't look like they had to remove the lenses to me.

PJ

 

 

 

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On 7/2/2020 at 7:22 AM, PJClark said:

yes I did. I used the Aerolites 508 LEDs.  My right side had a socket like the Sylvania above, the left one had something completely different.  I took the lamps and the new socket to my Annual at AGL and they replaced both for me...I don't exactly know how they got them in there, didn't look like they had to remove the lenses to me.

PJ

 

 

 

Have you already completed your upgrade?

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