Plane-Power replacement?

[Paul K]

I think I've seen this posted already but can't find it. Is there an off the shelf replacement for the vans supplied 60 amp self regulated Plane-Power alternator?

With less than 200 hrs mine is shorting out the field circuit and I have loose melted pieces of winding insulation floating around inside.

[BillL]

Originally Posted by Paul K

I think I've seen this posted already but can't find it. Is there an off the shelf replacement for the vans supplied 60 amp self regulated Plane-Power alternator?

With less than 200 hrs mine is shorting out the field circuit and I have loose melted pieces of winding insulation floating around inside.

That is pretty disappointing, Paul. Have to looked at B&C? What is warranty on the Plane Power? (edit: two years - oops !)

If it is a stator failure, that is typically rare. Will you be taking it apart to see if a wire vibrated loose? Epoxy coatings (among other changes) are used in "high energy" environments to avoid this failure mode.

[Paul K]

I've been running it for about 2.5 years but purchased it 6 years ago! Project took longer than expected😁

[rhill]

Hi Paul,
I was going to ask about blast tube,I see from your build page you did,my only thought from there is adding a screen for low level debris.1986 Honda Accord spun in the right direction Auto Zone,Pep Boys,etc. I'd send the one you have down to Plane Power and have it repaired as a spare.
RHill

[flynwest]

Send it in for repair. I have one that has 860+ hours and five years still going strong.

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Originally Posted by Paul K

I think I've seen this posted already but can't find it. Is there an off the shelf replacement for the vans supplied 60 amp self regulated Plane-Power alternator?

With less than 200 hrs mine is shorting out the field circuit and I have loose melted pieces of winding insulation floating around inside.

Hi Paul-
Would you mind sharing the circumstances of your field circuit shorting on your Plane Power? I've had periodic "nuisance" trips of my alt field breaker on startup and haven't really been able to to track down the source.

[Paul K]

Conclusion, kind of.

After two months of dealing with charging issues, chasing wires, connections, switches, etc., I finally out of desperation installed a new PP alternator. Guess what? All my problems went away! So while the manufaturers were 99.9 percent sure this was a wireing issue, and everything I tried keep pointing back to the alternator, it ended up being the alternator. Go figure!

In a followup discussion with PP, they suggested I return the old one even though it was way off warranty, to try to find out what the failure point was, for future reference. Well, 5 days later I get a package with a new alternator from PP with a note that they were covering it even though it is off warranty. Totally unexpected! Still don't know what failed but outstanding service none the less.

I hope that all of you that are having these same types of problems with the same set ups take this information, and from several other threads I have been on, and get another alternator to try for a few minutes earlier in the search for the issue. Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation.

Finally, although not all the suggestions on the forumns are helpful, there were many good ideas and a lot of solid suggestions of common setups having the same issues. Very interesting and worth watching in the future to see if there really is a common thread to the PP failures being caused by any number of modern systems employed today.

[lr172]

Originally Posted by alpinelakespilot2000

Hi Paul-
Would you mind sharing the circumstances of your field circuit shorting on your Plane Power? I've had periodic "nuisance" trips of my alt field breaker on startup and haven't really been able to to track down the source.

What size breaker? I have 25 hours on my O-320 with a 50 amp honda alternator with an external regulator. When my alt. puts out 44+ amps (such as when draining battery down), my 5 amp breaker feeding the solid state regulator would trip. I temporarily moved it to a 10 A breaker and the problem stopped. I have a 7.5 A breaker that will replace the 5A. I can't say whether the 5A was tripping early or the regulator wanted more than 5 amps at that current level, though I believe it is the latter.

A thermal breaker should require a good 5 seconds at the rated current before tripping. Also, my alternator won't produce 45 Amps at idle, so not sure this could be the cause in your scenario.

Larry

[scard]

Originally Posted by Paul K

Conclusion, kind of.

After two months of dealing with charging issues, chasing wires, connections, switches, etc., I finally out of desperation installed a new PP alternator. Guess what? All my problems went away! So while the manufaturers were 99.9 percent sure this was a wireing issue, and everything I tried keep pointing back to the alternator, it ended up being the alternator. Go figure!

In a followup discussion with PP, they suggested I return the old one even though it was way off warranty, to try to find out what the failure point was, for future reference. Well, 5 days later I get a package with a new alternator from PP with a note that they were covering it even though it is off warranty. Totally unexpected! Still don't know what failed but outstanding service none the less.

I hope that all of you that are having these same types of problems with the same set ups take this information, and from several other threads I have been on, and get another alternator to try for a few minutes earlier in the search for the issue. Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation.

Finally, although not all the suggestions on the forumns are helpful, there were many good ideas and a lot of solid suggestions of common setups having the same issues. Very interesting and worth watching in the future to see if there really is a common thread to the PP failures being caused by any number of modern systems employed today.

And just for the record, B&C isn't immune either. I'm doing this same dance with theirs. NEW alternator works great, newly overhauled alternator fails (no output).