What's new
Van's Air Force

The definitive Van's Aircraft support community! Buying, building or flying an RV? Join our exclusive family of mentors and enthusiasts!

Flakey Circuit Breaker on flaps?

R

riobison

Well Known Member
Went to extend my flaps yesterday to land and they wouldn't, completely dead. Pulled and reset the circuit breaker and still nothing. Got home and went through the whole process again and still dead. Crawled under the panel to check the wires and all's well. Put the voltmeter on the breaker and the flaps started working. Took it off and they would operate normally. I worked the breaker and sprayed some electricals contact cleaner in it and hoping that it was just a dirty contact and I'm good to go.

Has anyone else had this happen? What are the chances that this will only fix it for the short term and I should order and change out the breaker?

Thanks

Tim
 
Life has taught me that things seldom self repair. Replace it before it lets you down at the worst possible time.
Cheers DaveH
 
The flap motors have a long history of intermittent stoppage. One of the most common causes is a dead spot or a build up of grease on the brushes. Are you sure the breaker is causing the outage?
 
Last edited:
Yes I agree that things don't seldom repair.

All I did was put the volt meter across the breaker and they started working and worked 1/2 dozen times in the hanger since. So some contact cleaner and here hoping.

But, in the back of my mind of course is that motor. About 600 hrs on the airframe. Can these be taken apart and cleaned, or do I buy a new one and change it out and hopefully not have to worry about it?
 
riobison said:
Yes I agree that things don't seldom repair.

All I did was put the volt meter across the breaker and they started working and worked 1/2 dozen times in the hanger since. So some contact cleaner and here hoping.

But, in the back of my mind of course is that motor. About 600 hrs on the airframe. Can these be taken apart and cleaned, or do I buy a new one and change it out and hopefully not have to worry about it?
Click to expand...
Easy to take apart and inspect for grease contamination. The brushes and commutator should be okay but easy to see.
Even if contaminated, the grease is non conductive and shouldn’t trip a breaker.
 
JonJay said:
Easy to take apart and inspect for grease contamination. The brushes and commutator should be okay but easy to see.
Even if contaminated, the grease is non conductive and shouldn’t trip a breaker.
Click to expand...
It never did trip the breaker. But I probably need to clean it to eliminate that potential problem.
 
If it's one of the 'Tyco' breakers you might want to replace it anyway, history of failures and AD's.
 
riobison said:
Went to extend my flaps yesterday to land and they wouldn't, completely dead. Pulled and reset the circuit breaker and still nothing. Got home and went through the whole process again and still dead. Crawled under the panel to check the wires and all's well. Put the voltmeter on the breaker and the flaps started working. Took it off and they would operate normally. I worked the breaker and sprayed some electricals contact cleaner in it and hoping that it was just a dirty contact and I'm good to go.

Has anyone else had this happen? What are the chances that this will only fix it for the short term and I should order and change out the breaker?

Thanks

Tim
Click to expand...
I had the same thing happen. Always check the ground first, not last. Please don't ask me how I know this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top