Is my Turn Coordinator OK?

Today I bench tested my Falcon TC. The unit is appr 6-7 years old, never used. It couldn't start after I powered it, but I heard a click. I opened the gage, powered again and noticed that gyro torqued momentarily and didn't spin. I touched it, powered, and touched again. It started. Developed its high speed. I closed the gage, run about 20 minutes (was 20V, gage says 11-30, draw .24xx Amps) and it started whining. Really high pitch sound. Turned off. Than back on and run for 2 hours. Was working good for the time of testing.

Guys experienced in this type of avionics could you tell me if the gage is healthy? Should I lubricate something?

Yes, it's made in China. No, I am not going to discard it (at least for now). I like the mechanism it's looking cool inside.

If it where me i would spin it up, spray it full of ACF-50, run it for 20 minutes and be done.

YMMV

i wouldn't lubricate or spray anything on the TC. The bearings are lubricated with a very high quality. low viscosity watch oil and many of the TC's depend on a viscous silicone liquid in the indicator mechanism to dampen the response. Disturbing the liquid will require ithe instrument to be overhauled and messing with the bearing lube will cause sluggish and inaccurate indications.

I would continue to cycle it for a day or so and see if it continues to start and run properly. Short of using a rate table to check the accuracy you could rig up a portable battery and fly it with a known good indicator to verify the accuracy of your TC.

This is normal

Mine stuck a few time when turned on while building. I have been flying now for 2 yrs. and it has worked flawlessly.

Turn Coordinator, It's dead now!

Well after seven years it's now dead! Pretty good compared to some others. My Garmin 510 is on its last leg also.
I just bought two Garmin G3X screens and placed an order for the other items needed for a panel upgrade. The building process never ends.

Current Panel:


2015 Panel:

GRT Mini
Throw out the gyro. And your wind up watch.

bhester said:

Mine stuck a few time when turned on while building. I have been flying now for 2 yrs. and it has worked flawlessly.

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Sometimes you get a poor contact between the brushes and the armature. In a real airplane the vibration is often enough to fix that problem, and once it starts it coasts over any oxidized spots.

bhester said:

Well after seven years it's now dead! Pretty good compared to some others.

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Bobby that's very good compared to mine. I am on my third used TC and it's getting noisy again. None lasted more then 400 hours.

Nice panel project. I will likely stick to my steam till 2019

Vlad said:

None lasted more then 400 hours.

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That's what...about 2 weeks air time for you?

Michael White said:

That's what...about 2 weeks air time for you?

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Stop that Moose. It takes me a good year on average

the falcons are really the bottom of the food chain. 400 hrs on a used one is good. i switched to Mid-Continent. much better product.
maybe you should but a grease fitting on that unit.