Propeller governor

As part of the panel and electrical upgrade on the -10 I'm going through everything in detail.

Turns out the governor is an MT, manufacture date in 2005.

I've read all the threads I can find about governors, including the MT failures in the last few years. By review of the SBs, it appears mine is not affected.

However, it is certainly due for overhaul by time.

What are most people doing now for governors? I have a stock Van's Lycoming, wide deck IO-540.

Trying to decide between spending the cash for overhaul or just buying a new u Hartzell or PCU-5000X.

Thanks in advance.

Can't answer your question directly, but you might want to give MT-Propeller USA a call and find out what the overhaul price is before assessing whether to replace with a new one or not. The cost difference might be considerable.

MT will overhaul it for a LOT less than a new one. I think I paid around $300 last year for an overhaul with the guys in DeLand.

I was going to make a poll for what governors people are using but somehow failed when making the post.

So is the consensus that the MT is a good choice, despite the issues / failures related to the SB?

I'm sure this one came from Van's, it is a P-860-3 from 2005.

Governor

I had intended on using the MT governor in my -10. After having discussions with multiple people that actually had failures, I contacted an MT distributor to purchase one. In conversation, I asked him about the failures. He said he would call MT and get info right from them. He called me back the very next day with the answer. He said MT told him it was NOT an issue and only an isolated event.

That answer from MT gave me pause, considering I had conversations with more than one person experiencing a failure.

Long story short, after a bunch of waffling, I decided on the Hartzell governor...Purchased and installed, not looking back...

Like Vic said - overhaul if you think it needs it.

If you want to buy new, consider the PCU-5000X. 12 years flying on the RV-8A, and 5 years flying on the RV-10 and both work perfectly. Will be installing one on the new RV-8 project as well - just need to find a good deal. The first two I got via a VAF group buy and saved serveral hundred dollars but no such luck this time.

Carl

Talked to MT in FL today.

$550 for overhaul.

While they recommend 72 months, he seemed to indicate this isn't really a hard line and wasn't too concerned about time in and of itself.

However, mine is a 2005 vintage and sat before first flight in 2016. So overhaul is probably not a bad idea, especially since the airplane is grounded for all the other upgrades anyway.

I'm just wondering if there is a really compelling reason to switch. If so, I'd spend the cash and do it. If not, I'll just overhaul and stick with MT.

From what I can tell the problems leading to the failures in the units from a specific batch were addressed, and it seems there aren't ongoing issues.

Mike Busch suggests doing IRANs in situations like this so you may consider that option. I called the closest prop/gov shop and asked for a quote to overhaul or IRAN my McCauley govorner. It had been superseded several times so overhaul was prohibitively expensive ($1600) and an IRAN didn't make sense either ($1000).