Airplane Owner Maintenance

A Maintenance Oriented Podcast For Airplane Owners, Pilots, and Mechanics

Tag: alternatorbrushes

242 – Your Airplane’s Alternator: Neglected or Well-Cared-For?

June 20, 2024 /

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In this podcast episode, we’re talking about alternator maintenance!

Here’s the alternator I removed from a Beechcraft Bonanza to inspect the drive coupling and the brushes… note the brush assembly in the lower right side of the photo:

The brushes had plenty of length left, but they needed a good cleaning due to carbon dust that had collected from normal brush wear. Check it out:

After a good cleaning, the brushes looked great and were ready to reinstall.

Another thing (and perhaps more important) I wanted to check on this alternator is the elastomer drive coupling:

There have been numerous cases where these drive couplings have come apart and caused serious engine damage and / or failure.

Since it had been nearly 500 hours since this alternator was removed and inspected, I wanted to verify the drive coupling’s condition.

I performed the following: (Reference Continental M-0 manual.)

  • Verified no slippage at 140 inch pounds.
  • Verified proper coupling attach nut torque.
  • Installed new cotter pin.
  • Cleaned off old gasket and installed alternator with new gasket.

If you have a belt driven alternator, it’s important to keep the belt tensioned properly and in good condition.

How about you?

Do you have a plan for proactive preventive maintenance on your airplane’s alternator?

If not, you may be interested in listening to the audio for this episode, and then make a plan that best fits your situation.

It’s certainly a good idea to check alternator brushes each 500 hours.

And for gear driven alternators, it’s probably wise to check the drive coupling at a shorter interval than that. There have been too many stories of these couplings coming loose and / or coming apart, and if we can prevent that, it’s always a good thing!

For some additional discussion on this topic, here’s some interesting info I found on the Pilots of America site:

When to Overhaul / Replace Alternator

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195 – Is it Time to Tear That Engine Apart?

December 31, 2021 /

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When an airplane engine is making a small amount of ferrous metal, but the evidence is not totally conclusive, the decision to tear it apart, or not, can be gut-wrenching.

Such was the case for the O-540 engine in a turbo Cessna 182RG I’ve been working on at Classic Aviation LLC.

But after the owners decided to have it torn apart, and I got to see the evidence, I’m convinced they made the right decision.

Take a look at the two worst lifters:

And the corresponding cam lobe for those two lifters:

Here’s a side view of the worn cam lobe:

Now compare to one of the other cam lobes that was NOT worn down:

After seeing the condition of the camshaft and the lifters, I was very pleased with the decision of the airplane’s owners to have the engine torn down and repaired.

This engine was mid-time, and all the cylinders were running fine with good compressions, so it made sense to do this repair as opposed to a full overhaul.

In this episode, we also discussed some squawks from a Cirrus SR22T. I’ve got some photos and even a video for some of these.

Alternator #1 needed to be removed due to brush wear, and the oil seal was leaking… check out the brushes that came out in pieces:

We also had to send the engine driven fuel pump for overhaul… watch a startling video of a BAD fuel leak:

We sent the fuel pump to Mike’s Aircraft Fuel Metering in Tulsa, Oklahoma for overhaul… they do excellent work on fuel system components.

Happy New Year everyone! May God bless you in 2022!

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