Hi friends,
Looking for some advice. I've got an RV-6A with a Lycoming IO-360 and Skytec starter, 750hr TT. I bought it flying about 350 hours ago.
Went flying a week ago, and after a fuel stop, I tried starting back up, head a "clunk", then nothing. Tried again and it worked... gremlins I thought...
Then I went to go flying today, and after turning the master power on: "clunk clunk". Then nothing. My engine display, which is always on if the master power is on, was "off". I toggled the master switch a few more times for troubleshooting and got a wide variety of results. In some cases, I'd get the prop spinning like normal. Other times, I'd turn the starter switch on and absolutely nothing would turn on - not even any "clunks" of the master contactor/solenoid.
I confirmed the battery is healthy (I keep it on a tender and then checked the voltage independently - good). The weather was mild.
I replaced the starter solenoid about 2 years ago after a similar problem. This one is different because sometimes I'm not getting any power at all... but when I get power I can engage the starter.
So, I "think" my master contactor has failed. I only have 1 battery and 1 alternator, but the plane has 2 master contactors in line. When I heard the "clunk"s, they were coming from just one of them. No noise from the other at all.
There is no marking on my contactors, but they look kind of like Aircraft Spruce's LAMAR SOLENOID 12 VOLT CONTINUOUS (X61-0028) - just without the sticker.
Do master contactors fail like this? Thoughts?
Thanks for your help!
-sumo
Looking for some advice. I've got an RV-6A with a Lycoming IO-360 and Skytec starter, 750hr TT. I bought it flying about 350 hours ago.
Went flying a week ago, and after a fuel stop, I tried starting back up, head a "clunk", then nothing. Tried again and it worked... gremlins I thought...
Then I went to go flying today, and after turning the master power on: "clunk clunk". Then nothing. My engine display, which is always on if the master power is on, was "off". I toggled the master switch a few more times for troubleshooting and got a wide variety of results. In some cases, I'd get the prop spinning like normal. Other times, I'd turn the starter switch on and absolutely nothing would turn on - not even any "clunks" of the master contactor/solenoid.
I confirmed the battery is healthy (I keep it on a tender and then checked the voltage independently - good). The weather was mild.
I replaced the starter solenoid about 2 years ago after a similar problem. This one is different because sometimes I'm not getting any power at all... but when I get power I can engage the starter.
So, I "think" my master contactor has failed. I only have 1 battery and 1 alternator, but the plane has 2 master contactors in line. When I heard the "clunk"s, they were coming from just one of them. No noise from the other at all.
There is no marking on my contactors, but they look kind of like Aircraft Spruce's LAMAR SOLENOID 12 VOLT CONTINUOUS (X61-0028) - just without the sticker.
Do master contactors fail like this? Thoughts?
Thanks for your help!
-sumo