John Courte
Well Known Member
A few days ago, I posted in this thread with a question about what happens when you leave the timing pin (makeshift or otherwise) in the back of a Slick magneto and pull the prop through a couple of times.
This is the answer:
It's a little more involved than that, and you can read the full comedy of errors on my build blog, but the bottom line is that this is an expensive lesson fortunately taught in ground school rather than during air work.
I'm now receiving a little over $300 worth of stuff from ACS because I made a mistake.
Due to other factors, I was also troubleshooting the wrong mag for nigh on three weeks, and so far these are my takeaways:
1: Pay attention to and follow procedures. Had I done so, this thread wouldn't exist.
2: Label connections. For whatever reason, I didn't label the L and R p-lead wires as such and have wasted valuable time because of it.
3: Assumptions can be wrong. If you get unexpected results based on an an assumption, throw out the assumption and check things upstream of it.
4: Don't discount the simple or the obvious. There is no magical mystery juice flowing through these engines that suddenly runs dry from time to time. The answer is there, you just haven't seen it yet.
I hope my adventures can help keep someone else from stepping in the same mud puddle that I did. On the plus side, assuming there is one to this debacle, the engine now runs smooth and strong, and returns some of the confidence I've lost over the last couple of weeks.
This is the answer:
It's a little more involved than that, and you can read the full comedy of errors on my build blog, but the bottom line is that this is an expensive lesson fortunately taught in ground school rather than during air work.
I'm now receiving a little over $300 worth of stuff from ACS because I made a mistake.
Due to other factors, I was also troubleshooting the wrong mag for nigh on three weeks, and so far these are my takeaways:
1: Pay attention to and follow procedures. Had I done so, this thread wouldn't exist.
2: Label connections. For whatever reason, I didn't label the L and R p-lead wires as such and have wasted valuable time because of it.
3: Assumptions can be wrong. If you get unexpected results based on an an assumption, throw out the assumption and check things upstream of it.
4: Don't discount the simple or the obvious. There is no magical mystery juice flowing through these engines that suddenly runs dry from time to time. The answer is there, you just haven't seen it yet.
I hope my adventures can help keep someone else from stepping in the same mud puddle that I did. On the plus side, assuming there is one to this debacle, the engine now runs smooth and strong, and returns some of the confidence I've lost over the last couple of weeks.
