Jamie
Well Known Member
My plan was to launch for OSH on Wednesday. Weather was absolutely horrible here on Wednesday so we loaded up on Thursday and launched. Half-way across Tennessee my alternator "idiot" light came on and I observed a corresponding drop in main buss voltage to 12.2 volts. The idiot light was actually intermittent and was erratically flashing, from which I surmised I had a broken wire.
I shut down the alternator, energized the e-buss then shut down the master switch. I shed some additional load by shutting off my GX-50 GPS (I have a 496 in the panel). We made it back home (80nm) and I never saw the main buss voltage drop by even a one tenth of a volt (those little PC-680 batteries are awesome).
Back at home, I pulled the cowl and started tracing alternator wires. The alternator failure light I have mounted on my panel will illuminate with the master switch on, but if the alternator is ON (but no engine turning) the light will get noticeably brighter. I cycled the alternator off and on and observed the light changing brightness. I push and pulled on all the wires and tried cycling the alternator power again....this time the light stayed dim. I noticed a faint buzzing noise coming from the alternator when I would wiggle the wires going into the plug on the back. I pulled on those wires and the center wire (field wire) pulled out of the back. The pin had broken in two and the buzzing sound was arching. The wire was properly vibration isolated.
I went everywhere looking for a pin so I could do a repair and launch us for OSH. Everyone was clueless. I've gotta tell you, Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, and even NAPA are useless unless you can give them a make and model of a car. I even found an alternator rebuild shop. They had the male pins but no female ones.
So basically I was stuck.
I called Plane Power on the phone and they told me they would send me new pins but I would have to pay for shipping. I spoke with one of their guys for quite a while and he explained to me how to remove the broken pin from the plastic shell. I managed to sufficiently bugger up the plastic shell that I felt as though I needed a new one. They told me they would sell me one for 7 bucks and some change, which was fine by me. The shipping was going to be astronomical, and they even agreed to pay overnight shipping for the new connector and pins. This for an alternator that was out of warranty about 6 months. That's GREAT customer service!
I received the package on Friday, crimped the new pin and installed it and test flew the airplane. Everything was back to normal.
I think part of the problem is the center connector is the field wire plus a jumper in one pin. I think it may simply be too much strain on the pin. If it breaks again I will probably try splitting the wires outside of the shell instead of feeding two wires into one pin.
Too bad I missed OSH this year. I really would have liked to have seen the A-380 and other things, but there's always next year I suppose.
I shut down the alternator, energized the e-buss then shut down the master switch. I shed some additional load by shutting off my GX-50 GPS (I have a 496 in the panel). We made it back home (80nm) and I never saw the main buss voltage drop by even a one tenth of a volt (those little PC-680 batteries are awesome).
Back at home, I pulled the cowl and started tracing alternator wires. The alternator failure light I have mounted on my panel will illuminate with the master switch on, but if the alternator is ON (but no engine turning) the light will get noticeably brighter. I cycled the alternator off and on and observed the light changing brightness. I push and pulled on all the wires and tried cycling the alternator power again....this time the light stayed dim. I noticed a faint buzzing noise coming from the alternator when I would wiggle the wires going into the plug on the back. I pulled on those wires and the center wire (field wire) pulled out of the back. The pin had broken in two and the buzzing sound was arching. The wire was properly vibration isolated.
I went everywhere looking for a pin so I could do a repair and launch us for OSH. Everyone was clueless. I've gotta tell you, Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, and even NAPA are useless unless you can give them a make and model of a car. I even found an alternator rebuild shop. They had the male pins but no female ones.
So basically I was stuck.
I called Plane Power on the phone and they told me they would send me new pins but I would have to pay for shipping. I spoke with one of their guys for quite a while and he explained to me how to remove the broken pin from the plastic shell. I managed to sufficiently bugger up the plastic shell that I felt as though I needed a new one. They told me they would sell me one for 7 bucks and some change, which was fine by me. The shipping was going to be astronomical, and they even agreed to pay overnight shipping for the new connector and pins. This for an alternator that was out of warranty about 6 months. That's GREAT customer service!
I received the package on Friday, crimped the new pin and installed it and test flew the airplane. Everything was back to normal.
I think part of the problem is the center connector is the field wire plus a jumper in one pin. I think it may simply be too much strain on the pin. If it breaks again I will probably try splitting the wires outside of the shell instead of feeding two wires into one pin.
Too bad I missed OSH this year. I really would have liked to have seen the A-380 and other things, but there's always next year I suppose.