Flap motor question - sign of bad motor?

This is the second time it's happened. I was flying today, inbound for landing...started my procedure to drop half-flaps, and I got nothing. Basically landed flaps up, no problem. Same thing happened about 2 months ago.

I checked the fuse after each incident and it was fine. The first time it happened I decided to troubleshoot the problem the next weekend, but when I showed up that day the flaps worked.

Fast forward to today, after hangaring the airplane I checked the fuse. It was good. Looked at all the wiring under the panel, even gave them a light wiggle while activating the flap switch. Nothing. So, I decided to give a nice hard "thump" to the triangular brace where the flap motor resides. Activated the switch and the flaps now worked. Hmmm!

I really don't believe it's a wiring problem. My guess is the motor is failing. Anyone else have this happen? Any ideas? When it runs, it seems strong. Maybe it has an internal "intermittent contact" problem.

Do a search and you will find information on grease fowling the brushes. Disassemble clean and reassemble.

Flap motor fix

Calm yourself there is much written on this subject do a search. the procedure is fairly easy and requires cleaning of armature and brush assembly to remove grease from orginal assembly that gets on armature with age, this is a good time to check brush wear and replace. Read up on it and go for it.

Me too!

Last week the same thing happened to me a for the second time. The fist time was a year ago and I followed Van's "Flaky Flaps" Service Bulletin. So the 'fix' lasted for a year. I talked with Vans and the flap manufacturer (Usher Precision Manufacturing in Oregon) and decided to by a new flap actuator, as the ones built in the 2004 time period (when I got mine) have this issue. He said the new ones have had very few reports of this type. I was worried about being at distant airport and not being able to retract full flaps for the return. I flew home after some 'air work " with full flaps (after they wouldn't retract) and the power needed to stay level and the low speed caused high oil temps...even in a gradual decent.

Bob Cowan
RV-7A N743RV 250+ hrs

Thanks fellas...I did a search but didn't find anything exactly like my problem. I don't think it's the grease fowling problem, either, but I could be wrong.

Bob, your reply was what I was looking for. Thanks. Could you provide the SB #? I looked at Vans website and found two SB's, but they didn't seem to align with what you said.

lostpilot28 said:

I don't think it's the grease fowling problem, either, but I could be wrong.

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Have you looked? If not, it's easy to take a look inside it and eliminate that as the problem. How many hours do you have on your flap motor? If you get it acting up again, you might first try a voltmeter, and see if you?re getting juice.

This thread will easily guide you through cleaning the motor if that is the problem, and often it is. It was mine. One A&P on the field told me these couldn?t be fixed, that I would have to buy a new motor. Boy was he wrong. Just needed the cleaning.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=83585&highlight=stuck+flaps+problem

flap motor

Sonny, I had grease fowled brushes @ 55 hrs. Flaps stopped about 1/2 way extended on landing. Cleaned with good contact cleaner, safety wired brush springs back for assembly, installed brushes,removed safety wire, assemble, works like new. Ron

N743RV said:

..... I was worried about being at distant airport and not being able to retract full flaps for the return. .....
Bob Cowan
RV-7A N743RV 250+ hrs

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If the motor fails you can remove the actuator bolt and manually screw in the flap drive and re-assemble in the up position.

Not a full solution but it would "get you home"...

Fantastic! Thanks for the links, guys. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Here's the link to the Flaky Flap Motor .pdf on Vans web site.

http://vansaircraft.com/pdf/flap_motor.pdf

Bob Cowan