[Mooney-longbody] a small victory

[Peter Wordsworth]

Hi Mike,

A good thought to rebuild your alternator before it fails. I plan to do this
now every 500 hours. There is a view that you should also change the
bearings, capacitor and diodes while you're at it. Alternators are under
incredible physical load as they spin at around 6000 rpm at cruise settings.

Mine failed originally at 604 hours - just two hours after I bought my
airplane from a doctor in Palm Springs. The failure took out the voltage
regulator as well.

At the time Mooney had no spare alternators or voltage regulators so I
settled for a rebuilt alternator from RAMS. The first alternator they sent
had a slightly bent drive shaft (it had a slight wobble when turned), and
had probably been dropped. Had this been installed it would have made metal
in a short time, and destroyed the engine.

The alternator failed because of a faulty stator due to the wires in the
coils working loose and abrading - a widespread problem due to the type of
varnish which was used.  Seems the stator should have been replaced before I
bought my airplane. (TCM have a service bulletin out about this - but who
looks at TCM SBs!). I do now...

At the time, Mooney had no spare voltage regulators so I purchased two (one
as a spare) from a shonk in Florida (you probably know who). The electrical
connections didn't fit (because it wasn't the "exact" part as promised).
Also, the dimensions were too large. He advised me to change the plugs on
the aircraft! I returned them for a refund which he refused to provide.
Fortunately I could cancel the credit card transaction.

Stacey Ellis came to the rescue and was able to provide an overhauled
regulator in record time, which allowed me to fly the aircraft back to
Australia without too much delay.

I had the rebuilt alternator pulled after 498 hours. To my horror one of the
brushes had worn so far it would probably not have lasted another 2 hours!
Seems there was a faulty batch of brushes floating around back in 2003 or
so.

I'm planning to pull the alternator next time after 400 hours.

Best wishes to Caroline and your two joeys.

Cheers
Peter
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