Stuck heat lever on a turbo Lance

Russell BassRussell Bass
in General Discussion
I bought a '78 turbo Lance last June. When the cold weather came I tried to use the heat, but the lever wouldn't move. I had the cable replaced ($ 500 with labor), made one cross country flight, and it wouldn't move again. Back to the shop.... I'm told the cable is covered in a plastic shroud, that is so close to the exhaust manifold, it melts, leaving the cable un-movable. We replaced it again ($ 500), and they tried putting a heat shroud around it to try to protect it. Made another flight yesterday, and yep... Seized up again. Has anyone else had problems with this? My mechanic said other manufactures use steel housing for the heater cable, but Piper uses plastic.

Comments

  • fortzackfortzack
    Had same problem w/'82 turbo Saratoga a few years ago. Don't recall if we lubed the cable or replaced it and problem persisted until we readjusted some clamps and it works fine now.
    Could always get proper operation on ground, both with and without engine running. We theorized that in the air there was enough movement/heat expansion to create some binding somewhere (probably near the front end) and as I recall we made some adjustments to increase the radius of a bend in the cable near the front end.
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