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Sudden Amp Discharge

N

n74846

Well Known Member
On final approach today my amps dropped tp -10 and the battery dropped to 12.4. Amps ran between -10 and -8 until I turned off most electric, then to -5 to -6. Battery is barely above 12 volts. I did a ground run-up and neither moved out of yellow. Is this the voltage regulator failure that I have been reading so much about? Is there any cockpit diagnosis that can be done?

Prior to this episode volts have been 13.7+ and amps +1 or better. I have 109 hours on engine.
 
Mine failed this week at 107 TT. Original Ducati mounted on firewall shelf. Just replaced with AM101406 on eBay for $27.99 shipped.

MM - How do you know vibration is the culprit?
 
Piper J3 said:
Mine failed this week at 107 TT. Original Ducati mounted on firewall shelf. Just replaced with AM101406 on eBay for $27.99 shipped.

MM - How do you know vibration is the culprit?
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Jim, just curious, did you leave the reg in original location or move it to the new one?
 
Jim,

I think it will be interesting to see how the John Deere regulator fares in the original hot and vibration prone location, and how the newer Ducati fares in the new cooler location under the avionics bay. Only time will tell.

So far I have not heard of any failures of either. I hope if failures do occur they will be reported here as data points for helping others make decisions about which way to go when they experience more seemingly inevitable failures of the Ducatis in the original location on the shelf.

John
 
I have 700 hours on my original ducati regulator with no issues.Regulator is mounted in its original location I do have minimal power draw . No nav , landing lights, or AP and nothing extra on the panel.Maybe that's why its still going Kit was completed in 2009 .

Maybe that's why its still going.

Brad Stiefvater
Salem SD
 
Vibration as cause of failure is interesting. I would think that intended use on a motorcycle would be strenuous test for vibration. Maybe those Italian bikes are smoother than I thought...
 
Piper J3 said:
Vibration as cause of failure is interesting. I would think that intended use on a motorcycle would be strenuous test for vibration. Maybe those Italian bikes are smoother than I thought...
Click to expand...

It's actually the combination of vibrations on excessively hot soldered junctions that causes the junctions to fail.
 
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