Fixed - Final Report
Did the continuity checks (good) and even bought and installed a new ignition key assembly. No joy. Was REALLY frustrated by Saturday night when fellow RVer and hangar neighbor/DAR Ted Gauthier suggested he'd get in touch with A&P Ron Cooper, who helped to develop and test the ElectroAir system. Cooper called me at home that evening and we arranged to meet at his grass strip in Fowlerville, Michigan on Sunday.
Ted joined me with his RV6 for the trip, and we arrived at the 1900 foot strip at 1000 hours. I pulled the cowl off 3TP and slid under the IP as Cooper started calling out wires to trace. We quickly ran into a problem as his diagram didn't match with the wiring coming out of the controller installed behind my brake pedals. Ron made a cell call to Mike at ElectroAir (remember, this is Sunday morning) and he talked us thru the bundle as he was driving thru downtown Chicago. In the end, we found that the original installation (done by another A&P) had placed an in-line switch on the spark advance lead rather than the power module lead. That also explained why I'd get an RPM drop during mag check with the switch in the off position.
New switch, plug the old hole (by this time Ted was under the IP, as my back was starting to act up). Meantime, Cooper is going over my engine installation, has replaced a couple of clamps he didn't like, and has painted the back side of my prop - all in under 3 hours. He also pointed out the need for an induction leak test and the probable replacement of a couple of gaskets. Did I mention that Ron does all of this work from a wheel chair!
N323TP is now running (and stopping) as it's supposed to. After weeks of fighting this problem, I once again get bailed out by my friends. What a great weekend.
Terry, CFI
RV9A N323TP