Flaps Won't Retract

[Mooney_Allegro]

I LANDED TODAY WITH FULL FLAPS AND AFTER LANDING COULD NOT RETRACT THEM. I NOTICED THE FLAP MOTOR CB WAS POPPED, AND TRIED PUSHING THE CB BACK IN, ACTIVATING THE FLAPS AGAIN, AND CB POPPED AGAIN. ANY IDEAS OR RECOMMENDATIONS?

[Piloto]

Looks like you have a jam condition, most likely with the actuator. Once you pull the belly panel is easy to diagnose the problem. The actuator worm gear should be greased at every anual to prevent any binding.

José

 

[Kwixdraw]

I had a similar situation once when the J was outdoors in a hard rainstorm. Popped the belly panel and hit the motor with some ACF-50/Corrosion-X and all was good in short order. Just something to try.

[Kwixdraw]

Anything get solved on this yet?  Just curious. 

[Mooney_Allegro]

Thanks for your recommendations.  The issue was that the limit switch was loose for the flaps extended position, and when full flaps was selected for landing, the limit switch was not closed, so the flaps extended too far and jammed in the down position.  This event popped the flap motor circuit breaker.  It was also discovered that the flap motor was loose.  The jackscrew had plenty of grease on it, and the limit switches were clean, so all it took was to tighten a bunch of screws, and everything was fine.  Total cost $170, not too bad considering it could have been $1000's for a new flap motor plus labor. 

[Kwixdraw]

Thanks David. I like to hear what remedy was found as I think it gives us all a bit of peace of mind when it does turn out to be something realativly simple. Also it gives us a way to improve on the service we give our airplanes. 

[Jeff_S]

This was timely input. I had the pre-buy done last week on the J (yes, it's getting closer...hope to close in the next week or two depending on weather and ability to ferry home!) and this happened one time to the pre-buy mechanic. No CBs or anything, just that the flaps stayed down. But they just cycled it and then they came up, and he tested it 15 more times over two days and it didn't repeat so I just chalked it up to "one of those things".  I'm not going to sweat it, but I'll have my A/P look it over when I finally bring it home.

[fantom]

Also keep your too expensive flap motor clean. Engine oil can easily soak it during a filter change. Rebuilding it is much less expensive than finding, buying and installing a new one.