Stumped by new starter

Yeah, you would have laughed at me jumping in and out of the plane. After
each try, I pulled the prop through by hand until I heard the bendix kick
out, then jumped back in and re-engaged the starter. Most of the time I
could hear it re-engage before it turned by listening out the pilot's vent
window.
Jim

wrote in message
news:ANdFd.11822$F97.186@trnddc06...

On 11-Jan-2005, "Jim Burns" wrote:

I bumped the starter on the left engine about 5-6 times and it engaged
every time.
So I guess we'll just wait and see what happens next.


If you didn't actually start the engine, then the starter most likely
remained engaged between "attempts". It is the ring gear "driving" the
starter gear after the engine starts that causes the Bendix drive to
retract.

--
-Elliott Drucker

Jim Burns wrote:
Yeah, you would have laughed at me jumping in and out of the plane.
After
each try, I pulled the prop through by hand until I heard the bendix
kick
out, then jumped back in and re-engaged the starter. Most of the
time I
could hear it re-engage before it turned by listening out the pilot's
vent
window.
Jim

That sounds odd. In normal operation, your prop has to be turning at
a pretty fair rate in order to disengage the bendix. I've never been
able to do this by hand turning a prop. Are you sure it wasn't just
the impulse coupler you were hearing when you hand turned the prop?
John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

It's my understanding that the old shower of sparks magnetos like our
engines have do not have impulse couplers. Maybe I'm wrong and that was
what I heard.
Jim

wrote in message
oups.com...

Jim Burns wrote:
Yeah, you would have laughed at me jumping in and out of the plane.
After
each try, I pulled the prop through by hand until I heard the bendix
kick
out, then jumped back in and re-engaged the starter. Most of the
time I
could hear it re-engage before it turned by listening out the pilot's
vent
window.
Jim

That sounds odd. In normal operation, your prop has to be turning at
a pretty fair rate in order to disengage the bendix. I've never been
able to do this by hand turning a prop. Are you sure it wasn't just
the impulse coupler you were hearing when you hand turned the prop?
John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Jim Burns wrote:
It's my understanding that the old shower of sparks magnetos like our
engines have do not have impulse couplers. Maybe I'm wrong and that
was
what I heard.
Jim

That's true. I didn't realize you had a shower-of-sparks. In that
case you shouldn't hear the snap of an impulse coupler. That still
leaves the question of how you got the bendix to disengage by hand. In
my experience, you'd have to be a real he-man to spin the prop fast
enough by hand to get it to disengage. I've never been able to do it
when handpropping an engine that already had the bendix gear engaged.
Maybe that's a symptom of your problem (i.e. something not right in the
bendix system).

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

It's been a long day and I might not be thinking clearly, but when I cranked
it over without trying to disengage the bendix, I thought I could tell that
it was definitely still engaged. The starter strain was instant when I hit
the switch. After I pulled the prop through, there seemed to be a slight
delay, a click (which was what I thought to be the bendix engaging) and then
the starter would strain and start turning the prop. It also made different
sounds whether I stopped cranking on a compression stroke or a non
compression stroke. This also lead me to believe that the bendix may be
disengaging. At this point I honestly don't know but we'll find out over
the next few days when we fly it.
Thanks
Jim
..
wrote in message
oups.com...

Jim Burns wrote:
It's my understanding that the old shower of sparks magnetos like our
engines have do not have impulse couplers. Maybe I'm wrong and that
was
what I heard.
Jim

That's true. I didn't realize you had a shower-of-sparks. In that
case you shouldn't hear the snap of an impulse coupler. That still
leaves the question of how you got the bendix to disengage by hand. In
my experience, you'd have to be a real he-man to spin the prop fast
enough by hand to get it to disengage. I've never been able to do it
when handpropping an engine that already had the bendix gear engaged.
Maybe that's a symptom of your problem (i.e. something not right in the
bendix system).

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

On 12-Jan-2005, " wrote:

I've never been able to [disengage the starter] when handpropping an
engine that already had the bendix gear engaged.


Me neither.
--
-Elliott Drucker

What's the ambient temperature? If the starter bendix has
petroleum lube on the spiral splines, it will stick at low temps and
won't engage. Lycoming specifies only silicone lube (which is dry after
application) on those splines. It's the screwing action of the spiral
that engages the gear. It doesn't take much stickiness to stop it
moving.
You shouldn't be able to disengage the starter by pulling though
by hand. It takes considerable RPM to do that.

Dan