Looking to replace Skytec

I've had a Skytec starter on my bird since the beginning, but I'm tired of being "surprised" and stranded at foreign airports when it craps out unexpectedly.

For some reason, my bird eats Skytecs. I've put a total of four of them on (the same two rebuilt twice) over the last year and a half. This last time takes the cake, I was carrying a spare starter, since I was so gunshy.

Three weeks ago the main starter crapped out again (solenoid went bad). I put on the spare and flew home. Friday, with less than ten hours on the rebuilt starter, it crapped out and left me stranded in Houston.

Again, the (looks to be cheaply made) solenoid crapped out. The little metal plate that holds the hot lug was loose to the touch. Wiggling it would make the starter fire (if power was applied), but no way to do that with the cowl in place. This has been the case three of the four times. The metal holding the "hot" lug becomes loose and the starter becomes intermittent, then quits altogether.

So, suggestions are welcome. I'm looking at Kelly (now Hartzell) but any suggestion would be good.

Thanks
JP

B&C

http://www.bandc.biz/index.aspx They make good stuff!

Starter Replacement

My skytec literally fell apart. Replaced it with a Kelly and I'm very happy so far.

B&C

I too had problems with my skytec starter. I replace it with a B and C starter and have had no problems since.

I sold my problematic Skytec to a friend whom had it rebuilt again and it has lived on his 9A for almost 1000 hours without any problems.

me too

The front housing which holds the front bearing that carries the solenoid fell apart. I've seen some forum threads where this is a common break on the lightweight series. I replaced mine with the skytech "NL" series which is there heavy duty starter. A couple more pounds but a lot less worries.

more

My RV-7 friend had his Skytec lightweight just quit the other day, we took it to the local rebuilder to be fixed. When I picked it up, he told me it looked like it was wired by a 10 year old. He thought it was junk. He did go though it and repaired it and it now works just fine.
Just one suggestion would be to have your starters checked over locally so you can have a little more faith in them. Was 100 to have it fixed.
Good Luck.

I've been very pleased with my B&C. 500 hrs, about 375 starts, not a glitch.

George

How many starts, that?s a good thing to add!!

My B&C has right at 1000 hours and probably 2000 starts since most of my flying is local half hour hops.

On the other side of the coin....

I replaced my starter with a Skytec HT in February of 1995 and it hasn't missed a beat!
Probably at least 2000 starts as well!

A B&C starter has the advantage of a lower power draw. A high power draw can pull the voltage of the battery below the requirements of some electronic ignitions and cause a kick back and maybe break the starter.

Which SkyTec Starters?

When some of you you say you've had problems with your Sky-Tec lightweight starter, which model are you talking about?

There's LS, PM, HT & NL...

I have an NL in my nearly finished RV-7, and it looks fairly robust. Should I expect problems?

NL is what Skytech recommended to replace the lightweight model I had originally (LS I think). It is definitely mo' betta, although significantly heavier.

Previous poster makes an interesting point about the lower current draw of the B&C unit however. Assuming he is correct, that may be part of the explanation for the occasional kickbacks I have had. The combination of a light weight (low inertia) prop (Whirlwind RV200), high compression pistions (9:1), pmags and voltage drop during rare 2nd or 3rd attempts at starting occasionally resulted in kickbacks. Mostly fixed the problem by adjusting the pmag timing slightly, but before I did that, I did manage to crack the NL starter with a kickback. Kinda wishing I had gone with the more expensive B&C now that would have lowered the potential for kickbacks further.

Skytech is pretty good about the replacements however -was sent a new NL starter at their cost - around $200 I think.

erich

Skytec 149NL

At the flight school were I work we had Lamar starters on our aircraft. They all died between 250 and 300 hrs. Based on a Cessna bulletin we upgraded everything to the Skytec 149NL They work fantastic and all have gone to TBO several times without failure. At TBO we have them rebuilt by Skytec and put them back in for another 2000 hrs. Skytec recomends for high compression and 6 cyl apps use the 149NL/EC. The only "issue" if you can call it that I have heard about is that if you have only 1 impulse coupling mag and 1 non-impulse mag installed and both are hot during start (in this situation the key switch should be wiried so only the impulse mag is hot during cranking) the skytec can crank fast enough to fire the non-impulse mag and this can cause a kick back. If it happens fix the wiring, change the starter shear pin (new one included) and your back in busniess. GREAT STARTER, Russ