Mandatory SB565 Lycoming fuel pump

Paul kgyy wrote:
I received a notice in the mail. It says,

"If your Lycoming engine has a diaphragm-type fuel pump with Lycoming
P/N LW-15473 installed, and has a date code of 3201, the pump must be
replaced PRIOR TO NEXT FLIGHT."

The defective pumps were shipped from Lycoming between 10/1/01 and
2/2/04.

It affects a wide range of engines from 320 to 540, IO, O, AIO, TO

Was the notice an AD? If so, it would have a number like 2005-10-11 or
something similar. I have not heard of one but you can search AD's
he

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory...e?OpenFrameSet

One of the nice features is a listing of all the new AD's in the last
60 days. I checked the last 60 days against Lycoming (just cut the
text from the browser and paste it into WordPad) and got nothing. So I
doubt this is an AD.

Now, if no AD has issued and you are a Part-91 operator (if you don't
know whether you are or not - you are; if you were subject to Part 135,
137, 125, 121, etc you would have a certificate and manual, and boy
would you know it...) then regardless of what Lycoming says, regardless
of how the letter is worded, and regardless of all the FUD (Fear,
Uncertainty, Doubt) that gets spread around - you are not grounded and
you are not required to replace anything.

Having said that, Lycoming is pretty famous for ****ty quality control
(they just lost a major lawsuit where they tried to blame it all on a
subcontractor) and I don't doubt that they've managed to make (more
likely had a contractor make to their spec) a bunch of crappy fuel
pumps. Most Lycoming engines have options other than Lycoming for a
fuel pump. I suggest you look into replacing your Lycoming fuel pump
with a non-Lycoming product.

Michael