Starters and Circuit Breakers

[jonweisw]

All -

Just a anecdote which can help with troubleshooting starters and other electrical items.

Was in Schenectady overnight, an hour from my home base at Caldwell, NJ, and was in a rush to get home to beat some weather (MVFR with snow squalls) moving in later in the morning. Got to the airport early, plane had been hangared o/n on the heater and was toasty and ready to go. Loaded and preflighted and was ready to launch. Pressed the starter switch and .... nothing. No click, no engagement, no light.... nothing. Battery voltages both good.

Figuring it was perhaps a connection that needed tightening (that's happened to me before), I decowled and examined. Nothing obvious. Remembered that I had plumbed a circuit breaker into the starter circuit in the cabin. The circuit breaker hadn't popped, but I reset it anyway and.... voila! All was good in the world.

The whole episode delayed my departure by 30min and I made it home and escaped before the marginal conditions arrived.

I had heard that circuit breakers should all be re-cycled on a yearly basis to eliminate corrosion that can build on them over time and I am going to add that to my condition inspection.

Jon

[gasman]

That breaker will continue to be a problem for you. Remove it, it is not needed to protect anything in the starter system that you can't control yourself.