dmaib

dmaib

Well Known Member
My flaps quit working today, and I suspect the motor at this point. I have looked at quite a few posts on this forum concerning grease getting into the motor and causing it to quit working. Can anybody tell me if the RV-10 flap motors have had this issue? Are the flap motors the same in all of the models?
Any tips as far as cleaning the grease out of the motor would be appreciated, as well.
I plan to hook up 12 volts directly to the motor tomorrow and see whether it runs or not, as a first troubleshooting step.
 
Power?

Instead of hooking up 12 volts to the flap motor how bout tying into the other end of the wires and see if you have 12V when you actuate the flap switch. :)
Ryan
 
131RB said:
Instead of hooking up 12 volts to the flap motor how bout tying into the other end of the wires and see if you have 12V when you actuate the flap switch. :)
Ryan
Click to expand...

I have the Vertical Power system in the airplane so can see that I am getting 12v, but nothing is happening at the motor.
 
dmaib said:
I have the Vertical Power system in the airplane so can see that I am getting 12v, but nothing is happening at the motor.
Click to expand...

The VP is not actually looking at the connections to the motor, it only looking at the VP itself.
 
Walt said:
The VP is not actually looking at the connections to the motor, it only looking at the VP itself.
Click to expand...

But, when I activate the flap switch, the VP display indicates current is being sent through the flap circuit. Wouldn't that indicated that power is getting to the motor? If not, I imagine I would get a fault indication from VP. Yes? No?
At any rate, testing the motor directly with a 12v source seems like a good first step. If it does not work that way, then the motor comes out for a look and probable cleaning.
 
I was thinking voltage in the previous post, I would imagine that if the motor is not running due to grease then the current flow that you see would be very low, much less than normal motor current.
 
Well, I was getting ready to test the flap motor with a borrowed 12v power supply, but decided to try operating them one more time before pulling connectors apart. Naturally, the flaps worked fine. I ran them up and down about 15 times with no problem. I hate it when that happens.:confused: I also took a look at the PDF from Van's that Scremm posted in an earlier post. It seems as if the motors with the grease problem are the earlier motors supplied by Motion Systems. I have the newer motor supplied by Pittman. Has anybody had the grease problem with the Pittman motor?
 
rv9av8tr said:
That would really suck on a trip, land for gas and can't get the flaps back up. GROUNDED!
Click to expand...

Not really, Remove the bolt from the flap motor arm and unscrew it (screw in for the 8) till the flaps are in up position and replace the bolt, and covers etc......

You did make it easy to get to, didn't ya?

Now just finish your trip by landing with no flaps.

You do practice that, don't ya?.................................:cool:
 
Before you do that...

gasman said:
Not really, Remove the bolt from the flap motor arm and unscrew it (screw in for the 8) till the flaps are in up position and replace the bolt, and covers etc......

You did make it easy to get to, didn't ya?

Now just finish your trip by landing with no flaps.

You do practice that, don't ya?.................................:cool:
Click to expand...

Before you remove a bolt, try shaking the flaps vigorously by hand or better yet take off and (at altitude) do a power on stall with the flap switch in the up position. I know it sounds weird, but I did that once when my flaps stuck in the down position due to a stopped motor. Apparently there was enough interaction between the flap movement and the motor generated by the stall that the commutator in the motor (which is what gets isolated by the grease buildup) regained some life and pulled the flaps up. Then clean the motor or buy a new one once you get home.

I swear, it worked.

Chris
 
gasman said:
Not really, Remove the bolt from the flap motor arm and unscrew it (screw in for the 8) till the flaps are in up position and replace the bolt, and covers etc......

You did make it easy to get to, didn't ya?

Now just finish your trip by landing with no flaps.

You do practice that, don't ya?.................................:cool:
Click to expand...

That's my plan. My center console means a few more screws to remove to get to the motor, but it is still probably no more than a 30 minute operation to get to the motor, get the flaps retracted, reinstall the cover and the console, and away we go! (I do practice no flap landings pretty regularly, and I make sure transition training customers get to try them, as well).
 
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