REFLECTOR: Oil in starter

[Bob Jackson]

Scott,

 

Our SkyTec on our Continental IO-550N was also leaking oil.  More shocking,
when we started poking around we realized the entire starter motor and
casing was loose and 'wobbly'.  This was more than 100 hours ago.  We did
not have a blocked oil breather.  We returned the starter to SkyTec and
ending up buying and installing a new one.  

 

I don't remember SkyTec saying what they thought went wrong, but we were out
of the warranty period.  They did say the insides of the starter motor were
in bad shape and showed heavy use.  Ours had received heavy use.
Operationally, it had about 200 hours on it (what we had accumulated since
first flight), but I would characterize that period as 'normal'.  Our engine
always starts one the first turn, except when hot, and it didn't take us
very long to learn a good hot start procedure that prevents ever 'grinding'
it for a long time trying to get it started.

 

Where our 'heavy wear' most likely came in (assuming it was our fault) was
during our ten year construction period, when we turned the engine over for
a minute or two every other week, while spraying oil in each cylinder --
hoping to prevent corrosion during our long build period.  We also would
're-dry' (using the microwave) out the desiccant in the plastic plugs in
each spark plug hole every two weeks.   It was a lot of work twice a month,
but so far (about 350 hrs on the Hobbs now) it looks like we did achieve our
goal and prevent corrosion -- that was a good accomplishment here in high
humidity Orlando.

 

But all that time turning the engine over with the starter motor (even
though there was no compression load on it) apparently took a toll on our
starter motor.  I think over those ten years, SkyTec also made some
important improvements to their starter to make it more resilient.

 

Good luck!

Bob Jackson

N2XF

 

PS  Still, I'm going to check our oil breather tube once again this week to
make sure it's not blocked now!

 

  _____  

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Matt Bucko
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 8:34 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Oil in starter

 

Continental?
http://www.skytecair.com/StarterLeaksOil.htm

Matt

On 2/7/2011 6:13 PM, Scott Derrick wrote: 

Doing yearly inspection, found oil dripping from my SkyTec starter, out of
the inspection hole and a seam in the starter. 

Looks bad to me.  I'm sending it back tomorrow to SkyTec for repair.
Anybody else have this kind of problem? 

Scott 

  _____  

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