Starter Problems - O-320
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:52 am
Nice sunny day this morning so I plugged in my preheater and headed to the
shop. Squalls were on their way when I poked my head out the door about 4
hours later and wasn't going to miss the opportunity for a quick flight so
pulled the plane out, jumped in and fired her up.
Started right away, but I had that mental feeling something wasn't right.
Amp gauge jumped over to 30A and I brushed it off as the first run in quite
awhile and cold. Volt gauge always needs a light tap to get it off the seat
and then it's fine, but this time it only got to 10volts. Again shrudged it
off as a cold instrument sticking. There I sat for almost 10 minutes letting
everything warm up before heading into the snow. Now I thought I smelled
something odd and wait...what's that weird noise. About 11 minutes into this
the sound became a clanking like the prop/spinner was falling off. I turned
off the mag switch & master to shut down quickly. Got out moved the prop and
found the starter not engaged but just rubbing the flywheel ring. After I
was done calling the Skytec corp every name in the book (82 hrs on this one!
and as I've stated before I love them). I got back in again and turned the
master back on. Didn't dawn on me right away what was happening but the
starter was running when I threw the master switch!! I turned it on and off
a couple times and this quit happening, then got out with a big screwdriver
and pushed the bendix back from the flywheel, turned the mags on -- hand
swung and got in my flight before "winter" returned. Full 13.8V+ as soon as
it started up so everything now fine in this respect.
After the flight I came to the conclusion that the remote starter solenoid
must have stuck in the energized positon. Once the engine started and I
moved the key to Both, the solenoid must have stuck from frost/cold/spark
weld or something and held the starter engaged and running on the flywheel,
causing the 10 volt reading high charge current etc and of course the
expensive part a totally mangled bendix drive on my Skytec 122PM (*#*#(%!!
. I have removed the remote starter relay from my firewall and am replacing
with a new one while the local electric motor rebuilder has a go at my
starter drive.
Other than sharing my shitty day and the advise that when it just doesn't
look/feel/smell right it probably isn't....has anyone else ever had this
happen to you and is there any experience with or chance that my
OFF/R/L/BOTH/START key switch was the culprit and the internals of the
switch stayed connected to the start circuit even though I had turned it to
both and actually all the way back to OFF and the starter would run when the
master was turned on. Would hate to get my starter back on with a new remote
starter relay and have this happen again if someone else on here has ever
had the mag switch start postion stick I'd sure like to know. I guess
another option is to do some rewiring and just get rid of the start solenoid
and strictly use the one on the starter.
Thanks,
Wayne
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shop. Squalls were on their way when I poked my head out the door about 4
hours later and wasn't going to miss the opportunity for a quick flight so
pulled the plane out, jumped in and fired her up.
Started right away, but I had that mental feeling something wasn't right.
Amp gauge jumped over to 30A and I brushed it off as the first run in quite
awhile and cold. Volt gauge always needs a light tap to get it off the seat
and then it's fine, but this time it only got to 10volts. Again shrudged it
off as a cold instrument sticking. There I sat for almost 10 minutes letting
everything warm up before heading into the snow. Now I thought I smelled
something odd and wait...what's that weird noise. About 11 minutes into this
the sound became a clanking like the prop/spinner was falling off. I turned
off the mag switch & master to shut down quickly. Got out moved the prop and
found the starter not engaged but just rubbing the flywheel ring. After I
was done calling the Skytec corp every name in the book (82 hrs on this one!
and as I've stated before I love them). I got back in again and turned the
master back on. Didn't dawn on me right away what was happening but the
starter was running when I threw the master switch!! I turned it on and off
a couple times and this quit happening, then got out with a big screwdriver
and pushed the bendix back from the flywheel, turned the mags on -- hand
swung and got in my flight before "winter" returned. Full 13.8V+ as soon as
it started up so everything now fine in this respect.
After the flight I came to the conclusion that the remote starter solenoid
must have stuck in the energized positon. Once the engine started and I
moved the key to Both, the solenoid must have stuck from frost/cold/spark
weld or something and held the starter engaged and running on the flywheel,
causing the 10 volt reading high charge current etc and of course the
expensive part a totally mangled bendix drive on my Skytec 122PM (*#*#(%!!
. I have removed the remote starter relay from my firewall and am replacing
with a new one while the local electric motor rebuilder has a go at my
starter drive.
Other than sharing my shitty day and the advise that when it just doesn't
look/feel/smell right it probably isn't....has anyone else ever had this
happen to you and is there any experience with or chance that my
OFF/R/L/BOTH/START key switch was the culprit and the internals of the
switch stayed connected to the start circuit even though I had turned it to
both and actually all the way back to OFF and the starter would run when the
master was turned on. Would hate to get my starter back on with a new remote
starter relay and have this happen again if someone else on here has ever
had the mag switch start postion stick I'd sure like to know. I guess
another option is to do some rewiring and just get rid of the start solenoid
and strictly use the one on the starter.
Thanks,
Wayne
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