century (mineral wells) doesn't work on the old ones anymore
(unless they have started back up.) be sure to call & check before
you go.

however, "autopilots central" in tulsa still works on them (last time
i checked.) they are very knowledgeable about the century's,
probably the best in the business as century won't do them
anymore.

http://www.sparksaviationcenter.com/

an intermittent like you have frequently is just a bad connection
in one or both of the connectors that go from the gyros to the
"computer". these are small round connectors with some odd
number (5? 7?) of pins. the male pins are very small diameter,
and the female receptacles for them are sort of a split socket
(envision the petals of a tulip bloom). these "petals" get spread
out and don't make good contact. if you have real steady hands,
you can disconnect the cable, and with a needle _gently_ bend
the petals back together to make good contact. if i remember
correctly, the male pins are on the back of the gyro, and the
female pins are in the cable, so after disconnecting the cable
hangs down a little to give you more room to work.

i used to do this fairly frequently (every 6-8 months or so). then
i replaced the century with an stec-30, do i don't have to do it
any more. :-)

hth,

g_a



(PaulaJay1) wrote in message ...
In article et, "McGregor"
writes:

If you aren't too far away, the best service is at Century Systems in
Mineral Wells, TX (MWL) pretty close to DFW. We flew down and had them fix
our IIIB years ago for a reasonable price and they did a great job. They
even hooked up the Nav 2 selector to our M1 Loran.

"PaulaJay1" wrote in message
...
Flew to dinner today with an outside temp of 10F. Auto pilot worked OK on
the
trip out (plane came out of a 45F hanger). Parked for dinner for about 2
hours. The autopilot didn't work on the way back. You could feel the
clutch
take hold but no corrective action to follow the bug. Simple roll control
didn't respond either. Well, about 20 minutes into the flight home, it
started
to work. OK all the way home.

So, is it on its last leg and I should pull it and see if I can get it
fixed?
Fixed where? Or is the low temperture (it was outside for 2 hours in 10F)
the
problem? If it's low temp, I'm tempted to let it go since I don't often
fly
there.

Chuck

It is not very close (I'm in Ohio) but I"ll keep it in my bag of tricks. Might
be flying in that area before the winter is over.

I went out to the plane yesterday. Hanger temp about 40F. Autopilot worked
fine. My electronics guy at KCAK says watchful waiting. May be harbinger of
things to come or may have been that way for years and won't get worse.

Chuck