When I had 55.3 hours on our RV-6A the Alternator wire broke between the end of the wire insulation and the heavy terminal. I thought about the configuration and it seemed like the flexing had to be concentrated in that small space. My solution was to bridge the gap with a couple of lengths of black shink fit sleeving. On the 5th of February we were about 20 minutes out of St. Augustine, FL the low voltage light came on. This was at 170 hrs or about 120 hrs after the first failure. The circuit had opened again but this time the tongue of the terminal had broken off at the barrel just forward of the sleeving. It was a bit of a hassle but I pulled the cowling and a maintenance shop by the Galaxy FBO reterminated the wire. Friday we flew to Panama City to visit friends. This morning (2-13-06) we headed for home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I climbed to 6,500 and was faced with a 35 kt headwind so back down to 2,500 ft where the ground speed came up to 167 to 172 kts. Staying out of the Restricted Areas, etc. in that area requires some zigzaging (time wasting) but as soon as I cleared them to the north I turned toward Meridian, Mississippi and as I crossed that city the Low Voltage warning light came on again. Having a LASAR ignition system I knew if I shut down to refuel with a dead battery I could not restart the engine so I shut down the avionics and really started managing the fuel. I dug the sweetest little machine ever made (Garmin GPS 90) out of the bottom of my flight bag put some new AA batteries in it and after it figured out where it was, I put in the direct to KFYV task. I ran a tip tank dry west of Little Rock about 2 minutes before I planned to give up on it and switch to one of the main tanks (it takes a few seconds to regain power but the LASAR will work for a restart with the prop windmilling at a decent RPM). I declared minimum fuel and landed on the closer but downwind runway. All four red lights were on but three tanks still had fuel. Anyway, don't want to do that again - I'm thinking about a supported service loop and maybe two equivalent wires instead of one, with two terminals of course. Anyone else have the alternator wire breakage problem? What was your solution?
Bob Axsom
Bob Axsom