Vibrator location

[crxcte]

I have a 68 M20F, was the vibrator originally mounted behind the panel?

chris

[Guest]

Normally on the cabin side of the firewall on the copilots side.

[jamesm]

On my '67C it was located approximately 4 inches off  the center of cowl deck (over radios stack) facing aft. all components on mine were inside the cabin.

Hope this helps.

James '67C

[crxcte]

Much appreciated.

chris

[ilovecornfields]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:41 PM, M20Doc said:

Normally on the cabin side of the firewall on the copilots side.

It is a true injustice that your post did not win the day. I could not have imagined a more perfect response.

[tony]

On 1/31/2023 at 9:31 PM, jamesm said:

On my '67C it was located approximately 4 inches off  the center of cowl deck (over radios stack) facing aft. all components on mine were inside the cabin.

Hope this helps.

James '67C

exactly the same place on my 68 F

[RoundTwo]

I have to admit my mind wandered a bit when I read the title. 

[Guest]

Obviously some Mooney pilots have dirty minds!

[Planegary]

Can’t say my mind wandered when I saw the title.It went straight to OMG I gotta see what this is about here 

[RoundTwo]

9 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

Obviously some Mooney pilots have dirty minds!

Without any knowledge, that’s all I had to go on. So, what is this vibrator?

[ilovecornfields]

10 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

Obviously some Mooney pilots have dirty minds!

Unlike 8 cylinder Comanche pilots?

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, ilovecornfields said:

Unlike 8 cylinder Comanche pilots?

We’re into jugs not vibrators.

[Jerry 5TJ]

That’s a lotta jugs. 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, RoundTwo said:

Without any knowledge, that’s all I had to go on. So, what is this vibrator?

This might help explain. Also known as a Shower of sparks.

[RoundTwo]

1 hour ago, M20Doc said:

This might help explain. Also known as a Shower of sparks.

Thanks. I know it as SoS, not vibrator.

[MikeOH]

2 hours ago, RoundTwo said:

Thanks. I know it as SoS, not vibrator.

Well, which one is a more stimulating name?

[Andy95W]

1 hour ago, MikeOH said:

Well, which one is a more stimulating name?

Many of the SoS units were made by the Scintilla Division of Bendix- so I’m leaning toward “scintillating”.

[MikeOH]

20 minutes ago, Andy95W said:

Many of the SoS units were made by the Scintilla Division of Bendix- so I’m leaning toward “scintillating”.

LOL!

That's even better than 'electrifying'!

[ilovecornfields]

My apologies. I’m just now realizing this thread was about airplane parts.

[Vance Harral]

Our '76F originally had the SoS box mounted on the cabin side of the firewall.  The last time an A&P/IA worked on it (about 10 years ago), he determined that was a stupid location, and he moved it to the engine side, right above the heater inlet.  It's the red box at the lower left of the attached photo.

I was a little taken aback by the move, as the mechanic didn't ask us about it before doing so.  Apparently it was just obvious to him that it should be moved.  A "minor mod" in his eyes, and documented, so the legal box is checked.  Certainly easier to work on now, but that hasn't actually happened - it's been happily doing its thing with no issues ever since.  If nothing else, that's anecdotal evidence that the new location is no worse than original.

[Ragsf15e]

On 1/30/2023 at 1:27 PM, crxcte said:

I have a 68 M20F, was the vibrator originally mounted behind the panel?

chris

Mine was on the engine side of the firewall, pilots side.  68 F also.  But maybe it was moved at some point?  It’s out now, surefly mag installed.

[Don Gates]

I self-overhauled mine when I put the new engine on my M20C.  Cleaned up the contacts and adjusted the gap.  I built a little bench test setup so I could check it out without the airplane or engine, had time on my hands waiting for the factory reman engine to show up.  Has worked perfectly since, it was intermittent before.

[A64Pilot]

The SOS or vibrator is actually a trembler coil, 

My 1923 Model -T has four, one for each cylinder, the design is well over 100 years old, maybe 150 yrs old?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trembler_coil

Trembler coils are actually very reliable and require little maintenance, usually getting wet is their biggest problem. There is a capacitor in the 100 yr old Model-T coils that sometimes goes bad, after 100 years though.

What is neat about the Model-T is the four coils sit tightly paced in a box, if you need to remove one, simply slide them out. They have three contacts in each coil that match up with three bent copper strips inside of the box, just like changing batteries in your TV remote.

Back in the day trembler coils were used to increase the voltage from a battery high enough for tube type radios etc.

‘Early model Jets etc had vibrators to shake the instrument panels to keep the instruments from sticking, even much later many altimeters had vibrators built into them to keep the needle from sticking, those you can hear them buzz when you turned on the Master

So there have been quite a few vibrators that could or were used in airplanes.

[Fly Boomer]

2 minutes ago, A64Pilot said:

The SOS or vibrator is actually a trembler coil, 

My 1923 Model -T has four, one for each cylinder, the design is well over 100 years old, maybe 150 yrs old?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trembler_coil

What is neat about the Model-T is the four coils sit tightly paced in a box, if you need to remove one, simply slide them out. They have three contacts in each coil that match up with three bent copper strips inside of the box, just like changing batteries in your TV remote.

According to your link "The trembler coil was a device called a Ruhmkorff or induction coil"

[A64Pilot]

10 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

According to your link "The trembler coil was a device called a Ruhmkorff or induction coil"

Yeah look at the name of the link, Trembler is the common name that comes from the noise it makes, AKA “buzz coil” or even vibrator ignition coil.