Hall Effect Oil Seal Failure

I have a Lightspeed PIII ignition on the right side of my 0360 with a Slick mag on the left. The LS crank sensor is the electronic Hall effect type (vs the direct crank sensor) mounted at the right mag station. At around 200 hrs the oil seal in the Hall effect unit failed and oil contaminated the circuit board. I sent the unit back to LS and they installed a new seal. My question is to you folks who have similar units--is this something that I should expect to happen every couple of hundred hours or is my experience an exception?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

db

How could you tell?

How did you know this happened?

I have the same setup (halls effect sensor) and now have 250 hrs.
A couple weeks ago flying home the lightspeed failed in flight it was intermittent. After landing I checked it again to make sure it was not working. I started to trouble shoot it and traced all the wires to ensure they were all ok. They were and I pulled off the faston connectors from the coils and swapped them, to see if one coil might have gone bad. I pulled the spark plug wires and checked the both coils for sparks and they both sparked. I put everything back together and I have had a problem since, it is working fine and all I did was disconnect wires and reconnected them.

My hall effect oil seal failed at less than 50 hours. I sent it back and Kluas replaced the seal. I've put about 10 hours on it, and I noticed oil on the sensor again.
I am on a trip right now, and hope to be home this week end and pull the cover off to see how badly it is leaking. Klaus tells me thaty haven't had any issues with the new seals, but right now my experience seems to be different. I will let you know what I find out this week end.
I don't really want to have to mount the direct crank, as it will mean pulling the prop, I had the direct crank sensor on the RV-10 and it has worked flawlessly for over 700 hours.
I let Allan Barrett convince me to not go the electronic route, so it came with 2 mags, but I really like the starting and high altitude performance of the electronic igntion, so I went ahead and put it on, and the hall effect seemed to be the quickest way. Right now I am regretting that decision (hall effect).

Vic

Hi Bobby,

You can tell if the seal has failed by taking the cover off the Hall Effect. It is a flat plate held on the face of the unit by 5 or 6 screws. When I pulled mine off about a teaspoon full of oil leaked out the bottom of the sensor---this can only happen if the oil seal has failed. This failure in turn covers the circuit board inside the unit with oil--not good. Only solution is to pull the unit and send it back for a new seal--cost to me was around $100.

Cheers,

db

Is putting the direct crank sensor an option? it'd fix this problem once for all...

Yes, it is. I will probably go that route and just mate the connectors on the firewall side. The signals are the same. Just wire the connector properly.

Vic

db1yg said:

Hi Bobby,

You can tell if the seal has failed by taking the cover off the Hall Effect. It is a flat plate held on the face of the unit by 5 or 6 screws. When I pulled mine off about a teaspoon full of oil leaked out the bottom of the sensor---this can only happen if the oil seal has failed. This failure in turn covers the circuit board inside the unit with oil--not good. Only solution is to pull the unit and send it back for a new seal--cost to me was around $100.

Cheers,

db

Click to expand...

and what would happen if a person drilled a small hole to let the oil out

Response from Klaus

A few weeks ago I emailed Klaus asking what the cost would be to upgrade to the crank sensor since I had concerns about the potential oil leak.

Here is his response:

"There are over 1300 Hall effect Modules in service, beginning in 1998. I am replacing 2 or 3 seals a year. That is quite good!
Since the oldest ones are having the least problems, I suspect that crank case pressure has some influence. Since it is never more than a nuisance leak and because the function is not effected by oil, should there ever be a problem, I would leave it alone. "

my last inspection @ 200 hrs on my Hall effect sensor I saw just a film of oil inside the unit. It works fine so I am going to leave it as is and inspect at each 100 hrs or annual...

Hi Rich,

That must mean that Vic and I are the lucky two for 2008!!?

Cheers,

db

I'm not sure I understand Klaus comment about crankcase pressure... Have they increased over time? Do you think it is a factor in the your failure?

The fact that an oil leak in the Hall unit probably will not effect it's operation and the expense of the crank sensor assembly retrofit swayed me to stay with what I have. Not to mention that retrofitting the crank sensor can be a royal pain...

Known

This is a known problem and there is an inspection time frame listed per Klaus.

...and NO.. you aren't the only ones having issues with the Hall Effect Sensor. His reporting is not accurate. And he charges to repair poor components. For some reason a lot of people think that's just wonderful and pooh-pooh those of us that have had three failures in 200 hours and don't appreciate having to pay to replace faulty components.
Oh, I forgot, this is experimental. 200 hours and three failures is acceptable with such cool technology...

Hall effect sensor

Does anyone feel the problems some are experiencing with the Lightspeed Hall effect sensor could be heat?

Should we be directing a "blast tube" onto the Hall Effect Sensor like we have on the mag's?

I have had a blast tube on the hall effect sensor since day one. It still failed.

Vic

Another seal replaced

My Hall effect seal failed at less than 40 hrs in service . Sent back to Lightspeed and the seal was replaced for free ( I paid shipping to and from ??) I like the performance of the Lightspeed system but if I have another seal fail,,,, it's going to get yanked and back to the Slicks .

Crankcase pressure issue

638RS said:

I'm not sure I understand Klaus comment about crankcase pressure... Have they increased over time? Do you think it is a factor in the your failure?
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Click to expand...

If you suspect that the engine's crankcase pressure is excessive, logic would dictate that you would also probably have oil leaking into the magneto on the left side, as well. It's easy enough to check the crankcase pressure, to be sure. Does the Lightspeed EI use a single lip or double lip oil seal? (I've got an ElectroAir, not the Lightspeed EI)
If I had a problem like this and it was out of warranty, I would check the play in the bushing(s) for the shaft. I would also upgrade a single lip oil seal with a double lip seal (assuming one was available in the needed size). I used to do this on English motorcycles (notorious oil leakers) to stop troublesome oil leaks. Just a few suggestions and worth what you paid for them.
Charlie Kuss
PS Stupid question time! If the cover is tightly sealed to the case, could the air pressure internal to the unit slowly leak out while at altitude? If so, than as you descend, it may take a while for the unit's internal air pressure to catch back up with ambient at lower altitudes. This lower pressure may be aiding the ease with which oil could slip past the oil seal.
One way to test would be to remove the cover or temporarily insert a (toothpick, slip of paper, etc) between the cover and the housing. This would break the seal between the "under cowl" air and the air inside the unit.