Bonehead Mistake!
Have been doing my instrument training in my 7a for a couple of months....About a week ago the GNS430 started doing weired things...It would lose the satalites, threatend to shutdown if power was not restored and give VLOC not responding errors.
Garmin couldn't find anything wrong with the unit. In the meantime my friend loaned me his 430...exactly the same problems!
No way was this thing going in actual IMC until this mess was sorted out.
So it had to be something wrong with the electrical system and a bunch of unconnected issues says one thing...GROUNDING!
I had built an Areelectric forrest of tabs system and the grounds were solid.
OK, so I had bought an Autozone alternator....Guess I really had not paid the due importance to the requirement for a bullet proof alternator when flying IFR, so I went and bought a Plane power replacement kit from Vans...Sweet little unit BTW!
When pulling off the Autozone special I had a DOH! moment.
I had made the mounting brackets from steel...What to we do to prevent steel from rusting?...we paint it!
How does an alternator ground itself to the engine block?...Thru the painted bracket!...or NOT in my case
What an idiot! I can't belive I didn't add a ground strap from the alt case to the engine block. There was no way I could get a stable voltage from this setup.
The Plane power kit has cad plated mounting hardware which is conductive. I did however take the precaution of using some electrical connector grease between the different metals just to be sure.
Result....Everything back to normal.
Frank
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