LeftSeatATX
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- Sep 30, 2018
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I have had an intermittent start issue pop up every now and then. It has probably happened 15-18 different times during the first year of ownership of my 1976 Piper Archer II. Every time I try to have my A&P check it out I can never replicate the problem. Excuse my ignorance on airplane mechanics as I am a very green pilot and airplane owner with less than 200 hours.
This intermittent start problem usually occurs only after flying for a period of time, stopping the plane, and then trying to re-start. Only once or possibly twice has it occurred on a cold start situation. After re-fueling or whatever the case may be and attempting to re-start the plane I will only get a "click" noise when attempting to turn the key to the start position and that is all that happens. I can see the volt meter drop when I move key to the start position, but all I get is the click. The clicking noise is my starter solenoid as I have had someone attempt to start the plane with the cowl off and you can feel/hear the starter solenoid make that click noise, but the starter does not engage and the bendix does not engage the flywheel. The only thing that seems to solve the problem is time, I have had cases where it started back up after various attempts in 5, 10, 20 minutes and all the way up to 3-4 hours after trying to re-start after a multi-hour flight.
I am stumped as to what it can be and why it randomly starts working again and the starter engages after an arbitrary amount of time with no work done to the engine. A few times I have taken a wrench and actually turned the teeth of the bendix with it not engaged just to see if the metal had expanded during the heat of flight and it seemed to help? But maybe it was just a coincidence that after I turned the bendix teeth a few times it was just the right amount of time waited and the starter engaged. So I started by replacing the starter solenoid with a brand new unit back in January which did not fix the problem and the current starter in the Archer is a Lightweight Sky-tec 149-12 XLT which was installed brand new on the engine at overhaul in the summer of 2016 and the engine has a little over 300 SMOH currently.
This intermittent start issue is driving me nuts, it happens at the most inconvenient times and has caused me to sleep on a dirty FBO Pilots Lounge couch in the middle of nowhere Louisiana (Da Quincy) before. It is so hard to replicate as it doesn't happen every time so I have never had an A&P be there when it happens to troubleshoot the issue. I have had A&Ps tell me it could be a grounding issue or perhaps I need a better starter. Are there any suggestions from the awesome pilots in this forum? I am open to all suggestions and will be happy to describe further or clarify anything if anyone has any questions. Thanks!
This intermittent start problem usually occurs only after flying for a period of time, stopping the plane, and then trying to re-start. Only once or possibly twice has it occurred on a cold start situation. After re-fueling or whatever the case may be and attempting to re-start the plane I will only get a "click" noise when attempting to turn the key to the start position and that is all that happens. I can see the volt meter drop when I move key to the start position, but all I get is the click. The clicking noise is my starter solenoid as I have had someone attempt to start the plane with the cowl off and you can feel/hear the starter solenoid make that click noise, but the starter does not engage and the bendix does not engage the flywheel. The only thing that seems to solve the problem is time, I have had cases where it started back up after various attempts in 5, 10, 20 minutes and all the way up to 3-4 hours after trying to re-start after a multi-hour flight.
I am stumped as to what it can be and why it randomly starts working again and the starter engages after an arbitrary amount of time with no work done to the engine. A few times I have taken a wrench and actually turned the teeth of the bendix with it not engaged just to see if the metal had expanded during the heat of flight and it seemed to help? But maybe it was just a coincidence that after I turned the bendix teeth a few times it was just the right amount of time waited and the starter engaged. So I started by replacing the starter solenoid with a brand new unit back in January which did not fix the problem and the current starter in the Archer is a Lightweight Sky-tec 149-12 XLT which was installed brand new on the engine at overhaul in the summer of 2016 and the engine has a little over 300 SMOH currently.
This intermittent start issue is driving me nuts, it happens at the most inconvenient times and has caused me to sleep on a dirty FBO Pilots Lounge couch in the middle of nowhere Louisiana (Da Quincy) before. It is so hard to replicate as it doesn't happen every time so I have never had an A&P be there when it happens to troubleshoot the issue. I have had A&Ps tell me it could be a grounding issue or perhaps I need a better starter. Are there any suggestions from the awesome pilots in this forum? I am open to all suggestions and will be happy to describe further or clarify anything if anyone has any questions. Thanks!
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