My Arrow is starting to irritate me!

Harley Kleemann

The sucker is nickle-and-diming me to no end. Last week, the cooling fan on my two and a half year old Garmin GNC255 decided to quit working. Local shop installed new fan, and that problem went away.Two days ago, I noticed a blue stain and a small puddle on the hangar floor under the left wing. Mechanic says it's seeping fuel out of a sending unit...Geez, what next???

Scott Sherer

Hi Harley, I've blown two alternators in one week. The first one was 11 years old, great life. The second one lasted one hour of flight time. I have a third one coming Monday. Let's head to a bar and I'll buy you a drink. I feel your pain.

Harley Kleemann

Let's wait until Airventure, so I can crawl to the tent if I have one too many!

Scott Sherer

Sounds like a plan!

Harley Kleemann

Mechanics pulled the fuel tank on left wing. The fuel is leaking out of one of the sending units, right in the center of it where the terminal for the wire attaches. I guess those 42 year old seals gave up the ghost. Hopefully, new sending unit will be here on Monday...

Scott Sherer

Excellent. Be on the lookout for the other tank doing that same thing...

Harley Kleemann

And, to make it even better, there are two sending units on each tank...:(

MikeJJ

I hope mine are OK. I just painted those tank screws

Scott Sherer

And Harley, two weeks ago ,my alternator failed. It had been in the plane for 11 years so i guess that's okay. My mechanic ordered a new one from Aircraft Spruce and they got it from Plane Power by Hartzell. It failed after two hours of flight time. They got another one from Plane Power and that failed on first takeoff. I had a third one installed yesterday and will test fly it tomorrow. I've concluded that Plane Power / Hartzell has a very serious quality and testing problem...

griff390

Infant mortality can be frustrating but that's ridiculous.

I went thru a couple of Chrysler-style factory alternators a while ago. Finally got fed up and rebuilt the most recent one myself (there's not much to them), then added a solid state regulator and solid state over-voltage relay. I have over 400 hrs on it now with zero issues.

The Plane Power alternator was a little lighter, but I favored reliability over a few lbs.

Scott; have you found out what failed on the (2) most recent PP alternators, and are they covered by warranty? They better be.

Scott Sherer

They are on my shops credit card so I'm not worried as the shop purchased them. However, I will have to pay for all of that labor. It's not my shops fault. On the first replacement, the springs and brushes were faulty. On the second, the diodes failed.

griff390

Scott:

Sorry to hear what you're going through, and that you're having to eat the labor charges. I agree that it's an apparent QC issue.

MikeJJ

Scott, you might have some relief if you contact the alternator manufacturer directly, and inquire about the labor to install and remove their defective products. They may have a policy not publicized to take care of this expense. It may actually be part of the warranty documentation. Worth a try.

Harley Kleemann

Scott, that is horrible! Doesn't speak well for the product they are selling.

Scott Sherer

Thanks fellows. I have to take the plane up today and see if it's okay...

Resq5hvy

Never ever ask “What’s next?” They can hear you and take it as a challenge, like looking a wolf in the eyes.