N941WR
Legacy Member
After a really stressful day, I decided to pull the plane out and go play.
Preflight complete, buckled in, EFIS powered up, Master on, ignitions on, strobes on, fuel pump on, mixture full rich, CLEAR yelled, starter pushed propeller not spinning. What? Push that starter again and the prop hardly moved. Everything off, get out and move the prop by hand just to see if something is jammed. Nope, no problem there. Climb back in, turn everything on, press the starter button again. Again, nothing happens. A quick look at the voltage tells the story, only 12.1 volts. That is odd, I had just flown the plane on Sunday for 3.1 hours and it should be fully charged.
I plug in the charter and the battery quickly comes up to 12.5 volts. That should be "a plenty" as my Grandmother used to say. Sure enough, after climbing in, strapping in, and turning everything back on the engine fires right up with 12.5 volts.
Of I go into the wild blue yonder. Only one problem, instead of the voltage level increasing, as one would expect, I notice I am down to 11.6 volts and dropping. Hummm... It looks as though I have an alternator that isn't alternating. I enter the pattern and notice the flaps don't want to go down as fast as they usually do. Yep, my battery is getting weak.
After landing and putting it back in the hangar, off comes the cowl and a quick inspection and removal, in addition to an oil change.
I was stunned to find that the price of replacement Plane Power 60 amp alternator is over $450 and a rebuild is "only" $225. Man, I miss that ND 60 amp alternator I had with the old engine!
Saturday will be spent looking for a local shop that can rebuild it. I'll report back.
Preflight complete, buckled in, EFIS powered up, Master on, ignitions on, strobes on, fuel pump on, mixture full rich, CLEAR yelled, starter pushed propeller not spinning. What? Push that starter again and the prop hardly moved. Everything off, get out and move the prop by hand just to see if something is jammed. Nope, no problem there. Climb back in, turn everything on, press the starter button again. Again, nothing happens. A quick look at the voltage tells the story, only 12.1 volts. That is odd, I had just flown the plane on Sunday for 3.1 hours and it should be fully charged.
I plug in the charter and the battery quickly comes up to 12.5 volts. That should be "a plenty" as my Grandmother used to say. Sure enough, after climbing in, strapping in, and turning everything back on the engine fires right up with 12.5 volts.
Of I go into the wild blue yonder. Only one problem, instead of the voltage level increasing, as one would expect, I notice I am down to 11.6 volts and dropping. Hummm... It looks as though I have an alternator that isn't alternating. I enter the pattern and notice the flaps don't want to go down as fast as they usually do. Yep, my battery is getting weak.
After landing and putting it back in the hangar, off comes the cowl and a quick inspection and removal, in addition to an oil change.
I was stunned to find that the price of replacement Plane Power 60 amp alternator is over $450 and a rebuild is "only" $225. Man, I miss that ND 60 amp alternator I had with the old engine!
Saturday will be spent looking for a local shop that can rebuild it. I'll report back.