Gear warning CB pops during gear actuation

[Thedude]

My 79 J just started popping it's gear warning circuit breaker every time the gear is actuated. This happens on pulling the gear up as well as extending it. The breaker will not stay in while the gear is moving, but once it's done, it stays in and the lights all work fine.

It's been fine for over 8 months until this last trip. Any ideas on where to look would be helpful.

[EricJ]

Sounds like something is binding or there's an issue with the motor.   I'd get it up on jacks and do some gear swings with the belly off and see what's up.

Edit:  Wait, never mind.   If it's the gear warning popping that's going to be something different.   First thing to check is to open up the ceiling panel where the Sonalerts are and make sure it's not contacting the metal roof.   That's an easy place for a short and an easy fix if that's what it is.

[GeeBee]

I've seen a bad gear over-ride switch pop the warning C/B

[AH-1 Cobra Pilot]

If you do not have the retaining clip over the gear pump handle, your CB will pop once you move the gear handle to the UP position.  Obviously, the gear will not go up, either.

[Red Leader]

Make sure your gear override lever is completely locked.

[PT20J]

The Gear Warning CB powers the gear down floor light, the Gear Down and Gear Unsafe annunciator lights and the gear warning sonalert (tone generator in later models). So, the symptoms indicate some issue in this circuitry. The only part of the circuit that is active when the gear is moving but not active when the gear is either up or down is the Gear Unsafe annunciator. I would look for a short circuit somewhere in this circuit.

[Thedude]

Sounds like I should take a look at the ceiling. Pretty sure I hit my head on the ceiling a couple of times and that's hard enough to knock something loose. Thanks for the ideas, I'll report back once I get the time to look around in there.

[Aerodon]

In the M20K, the gear warning CB also powers the gear unsafe horn through the throttle switch.  And there are diodes in the wires near the sonalart.  Diodes hurt my head.

I would look at what is not working and start there:

1) gear unsafe annunciator

2) gear down light

3) gear unsafe horn - via up limit switch

4) gear unsafe via throttle limit switch.

 

I would start with the gear unsafe light, it easiest to access.  You are looking for a short to ground.

 

Aerodon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[skykrawler]

11 hours ago, AH-1 Cobra Pilot said:

If you do not have the retaining clip over the gear pump handle, your CB will pop once you move the gear handle to the UP position.  Obviously, the gear will not go up, either.

Not the gear warning breaker.   The manual extension lock will cause the actuator breaker to pop.

[skykrawler]

Are we are left in the dark as to whether the problem was resolved?

 

[Thedude]

Huh, I'm on this site like multiple times a day and I never got a notification of new replies. I thought I would be auto-following any topic I started...

Either way, getting up into the headliner seems like a very time consuming task, and I'm pretty short on time atm, so I never started going down that path. I was curious about how the "gear unsafe" circuit worked, because when that would turn on is exactly when the CB pops and stays unresetable. So out of curiosity when I had an hour after work, I started pulling out the part of the panel that had the annunciator lights as that gear unsafe light is part of the circuit and this should be an easy task. It took like 10 minutes to pull out and realize what a can of worms that was going to be: the test button from the annunciator panel just fell off because the solder was non-existent and the face plate took some gymnastics to keep in place to put back together. 30 minutes or so I got it put back together (minus the test button) and all the lights still worked so I postponed for when I'd have more time. Fast forward to yesterday, I go for a flight and everything worked fine: gear unsafe light illuminated and no CB popped. I have no idea what the original issue was, but it's something related to where I was screwing around in the panel, which was mainly just the annunciator panel, however the CB panel is just one over from that and maybe I pulled on some wires and that removed the issue. I figured out how to remove the glare shield towards the end of my exploration the other day, so I'm going to spend some more time digging into this properly when I have the chance. 

[Fly Boomer]

8 minutes ago, Thedude said:

I never got a notification of new replies. I thought I would be auto-following any topic I started...

Go to your Profile > Account Settings > Notification Settings > Followed Content and specify what you want to receive.

[Pinecone]

And you can see the notifications by clicking on the world icon at the upper right of any page.

I get a pop up when I enter the forum that says I have X notifications.

[Hank]

5 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

I get a pop up when I enter the forum that says I have X notifications.

Me, too, I just don't remember how I set it up. I do know that I dont want an email every time someone likes, quotes or responds to one of my posts.

[Thedude]

19 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

And you can see the notifications by clicking on the world icon at the upper right of any page.

I get a pop up when I enter the forum that says I have X notifications.

I'm on my phone and it shows the notifications at the bottom of the page, I just wasn't following this topic for some reason. I need to go through my settings as suggested above.

[Hank]

2 minutes ago, Thedude said:

I'm on my phone and it shows the notifications at the bottom of the page, I just wasn't following this topic for some reason. I need to go through my settings as suggested above.

The appear down there just once, and also in the banner at the top until you open the list.