Cold Weather Flying

Ben Jackson wrote:

Normal summer start always looks like the battery is dead, i.e. one blade
goes by and the prop stops turning, ignition back to off, then crank again
and it fires up immediately.


I flew a 182 like that and the standard procedure was to pull the prop
through about 4 blades during the preflight or else you'd have to 'rock'
it to start (like you describe). Not sure why pulling it through would
help.

This is the classic case of a starter adapter going bad. Fix it soon as
you are introducing metal to the oil as the main shaft goes bad.

Newps wrote:


Ben Jackson wrote:

Normal summer start always looks like the battery is dead, i.e. one
blade
goes by and the prop stops turning, ignition back to off, then crank
again
and it fires up immediately.



I flew a 182 like that and the standard procedure was to pull the prop
through about 4 blades during the preflight or else you'd have to 'rock'
it to start (like you describe). Not sure why pulling it through would
help.


This is the classic case of a starter adapter going bad. Fix it soon as
you are introducing metal to the oil as the main shaft goes bad.

I had this type of problem with both my Bonanza and my Tripacer. Each
time it was one of the field wires within the starter being disconnected
from the main post and using only one side of the field.
Either it wasn't soldered on properly or the starter got hot enough to
loosen up the joint or better yet someone decided to tighten the lock
nut on the post and turned the post and broke the connection!

It certainly seemed like a battery or charging system problem.

If it isn't turning over like crazy in the summer and the battery and
wiring is good, then there IS a problem with the starter.
This is a very simple system.
I suspect that its a O-320 so the starter will not put metal in the oil
as it's only a bolt on type.

I would never suggest that you remove the four bolts that hold on the
starter and disconnect the fat wire going to the post and take it down
to your local automotive/tractor starter and generater rebuild shop.
It is not legal here in the states and i suspect that it is not legal up
there.
I saw a starter just like that on a old tractor once ;-)

"dave" wrote in message
newss0ib.737328$Ho3.180431@sccrnsc03...


If it isn't turning over like crazy in the summer and the battery and
wiring is good, then there IS a problem with the starter.
This is a very simple system.
I suspect that its a O-320 so the starter will not put metal in the oil
as it's only a bolt on type.

Thanks Dave. This sounds much better than the problem being a lack of a
geared starter. The engine is an O-320-E3D and it hasn't shown any signs of
metal during oil changes. The previous owner had the a/c for 3 years and had
the starter problem all along; he flew 196 hours with this issue, and I've
added another 65 hrs since May.

I would never suggest that you remove the four bolts that hold on the
starter and disconnect the fat wire going to the post and take it down
to your local automotive/tractor starter and generater rebuild shop.
It is not legal here in the states and i suspect that it is not legal up
there.
I saw a starter just like that on a old tractor once ;-)

I would never even considered such advice :-)) ... and yes, I'm no expert
but I suspect it is also illegal around here ... :-)

From what I've heard the starter hardware is Chrysler same as the
alternator, but I haven't had a chance to verify this.

Anyhoo, I'll check into the cost of overhauling the starter and post.

Thanks much.


Jose Vivanco
C-GPYH

On 11-Oct-2003, dave wrote:

If it isn't turning over like crazy in the summer and the battery and
wiring is good, then there IS a problem with the starter.
This is a very simple system.

I agree the symptoms more strongly suggest a problem with the starter (or
connections to the starter) than the battery or charging system. But it's
easy to verify by load testing the battery.

--
-Elliott Drucker