| vlittle |
02-28-2013 08:59 AM |
A bit of thread drift:
Several years ago, I had multiple switch failures of the Carling switches in my RV-9A (switches bought from B&C). Working with Bob Nuckolls, and after much discussion and failure analysis, we established that the riveted connections on the Carling switches were working loose, increasing resistance and causing a chain reaction of failures due to overheating. The worst offenders were switches used for non-resistive loads: strobe circuits, landing light circuits and (wow!) master switch (alternator field) circuit. The master switch failure led to overvoltage in the charging circuit. The strobe switch failure led to charred wiring and a burnt finger.
I replaced all of my Carling Switches with similar Honeywell TS switches and the failures have stopped. It was a lot easier working with fast-ons when upside down under my panel!
You can Google this on the aeroelectric list if you wish. This study was pretty definitive. Failing switches are not just an inconvenience-- they are a flight safety problem.
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