Starter just goes "kachunk"

Also check connections, starting at the battery, and going through the relay and starter.
 
Bryan (with a Y)...won't help with your battery/starter issue, but get the split nose-cowl conversion done. It makes your life so much easier in so many ways.
 
Clark1961 said:
Keep in mind that airplane battery care and feeding is like 60s car battery care and feeding. Inspect for corrosion, clean and apply grease regularly.
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I don’t ascribe to the grease thing. I just clean the holy hell out of stuff and make sure those connections are nice and tight. I figure I don’t really want lubrication in there if I’m trying to make a really tight connection. I use a bit of Deoxit on the cars, but not the airplane. Mostly because I know wrestling it out of the tail I’ll just get red dyed crap all over me if it’s on there.

I like ‘em clean and tight. That’s right. May the jokes begin.

We thought we might not make it back to warm weather with our battery, but she’s happy now and looks like we’ll get one more summer out of her.

Looks like we’re quite consistent at six years a battery. And no power in the hangar for a battery minder.

I wish I had kept the burnt up starter contractor set out of the Dodge to show @SixPapaCharlie what dead ones look like and told him they came out of our airplane’s starter. LOL. ;)
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I did not try to cycle the prop.

I don't have a split cowl so if I have to take the front off to get to the starter I'm going to have to take the propeller off. I think that's when things are going to get expensive
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Learn something new very day. Grummans don't have split cowls? You ahve to take the prop off to get the cowl off? Seriously?
 
weirdjim said:
I just wrote what in MHO is one of the best Kitplanes columns I've done in my 20 years of writing. Harbor Freight has a new little microcontrolled charger that brought a VERY old AGM battery in the 182 back to near new performance. I'll post here if there is any interest. jw
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Absolutely!
 
weirdjim said:
I just wrote what in MHO is one of the best Kitplanes columns I've done in my 20 years of writing. Harbor Freight has a new little microcontrolled charger that brought a VERY old AGM battery in the 182 back to near new performance. I'll post here if there is any interest. jw
Click to expand...
Good stuff I’m sure. Please post.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I have a fairly new starter in my aircraft. It is a skytech. I went out to go fly today and when I try to start the plane it just makes a kachunk sound.
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Could the Skytec’s solenoid be defective?

Less than a year after it was installed, my Skytec ST5 wouldn’t crank. It was the solenoid. I read later that it was a common problem with the brand, at that time.
 
Funny, the guy who wrote that article looks a lot like you.
 
Time for a split nose bowl stc. My tiger is getting it done this week.

I had a new light weight skytec starter and it lasted 50 hours.
 
Thanks for that, Jim. Now I have to beat all the other POAers to Harbor Freight's inventory.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Thanks for that, Jim. Now I have to beat all the other POAers to Harbor Freight's inventory.
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It sounds like a batteryminder knock-off with a great price. I’ve got a couple batteries that the ‘minder couldn’t revive so would like to give it a shot.
 
A Van's Air Force member told me a Ford F-250 starter solenoid is the same as SkyTech starter solenoid. Good deal for EXP-AB folks...or in a real pinch for certified folks. :D
 
Can they split mine or do I have to get a complete new one? Cuz there's also going to be the cost of painting
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Can they split mine or do I have to get a complete new one? Cuz there's also going to be the cost of painting
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Yep they can just cut yours. May have some touch up paint work but shouldn’t be bad
 
Clark1961 said:
It sounds like a batteryminder knock-off with a great price. I’ve got a couple batteries that the ‘minder couldn’t revive so would like to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Harbor Freight's policy is to honor any HF coupon from any region. Each region decides what is going to have a coupon, but if the HF New England region has a sale coupon, they will honor it out here in Sacramento. This guy (struggleville) collects coupons from ALL regions and posts them for us. You will probably find a 20% off coupon for this device on their website. Here you go: http://struggleville.net/723-2/

Jim
 
N3368K said:
A Van's Air Force member told me a Ford F-250 starter solenoid is the same as SkyTech starter solenoid. Good deal for EXP-AB folks...or in a real pinch for certified folks. :D
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Whoa. See this: http://skytec.aero/ and click on Lycoming and Continental to get an idea of the range of starters available. I count fifteen different starters. They're all different. The Ford solenoid might fit one of them.

It occurred to me that 6PC might have had starter gear hangup. The gear teeth on the starter are bevelled a bit on the front of the teeth, and the engine's ring gear teeth are bevelled a bit on their aft side. The bevelling is to encourage the gear to mesh without a starter gear tooth trying to punch up against the back of a ring gear tooth and refuse to engage. There is enough of a flat spot remaining, though, for that to happen on rare occasions. The Skytec's design ensures that the starter motor doesn't energize until gear engagement has occured, hence the clunk and no action. The older Lycoming starters used an inertial bendix on a spiral-splined shaft, and the motor's sudden spinning was counted on to engage the gear. When that spline gets sticky/dirty/gummed up from guys oiling it (supposed to use dry silicone lube) it will just spin without engaging, or will grind against the ring gear and damage the teeth.
 
Hmmmm. That's interesting.
May be the issue. Once I pulled the prop through, at seemed to crank strong
 
weirdjim said:
I just wrote what in MHO is one of the best Kitplanes columns I've done in my 20 years of writing. Harbor Freight has a new little microcontrolled charger that brought a VERY old AGM battery in the 182 back to near new performance. I'll post here if there is any interest. jw
Click to expand...
I asked my A&P what kind of charger/minder I should get. He said I already had one built in. There is a plug hanging down from the battery box. He said I could go to Harbor Freight and pick up a power unit to plug into it. I sort of tuned him out when he said Harbor Freight, but you have me interested. Can you link to it so I can see if it is what he was talking about. I'm not even sure what to call it.
 
NoHeat said:
Could the Skytec’s solenoid be defective?

Less than a year after it was installed, my Skytec ST5 wouldn’t crank. It was the solenoid. I read later that it was a common problem with the brand, at that time.
Click to expand...
Correct, common problem with SkyTec junk due to poor quality of Chinese pot metal. Starter makes debris which gets lodged in the solenoid which prevents full extension of Bendix gear which prevents contactors from completing circuit which prevents the starter from spinning. Hence the ka-chunk sound where the Bendix comes "almost all the way" without the starter rotating the gear.


Br-Y-an, after you are done spending ka-ching money for replacement parts recommended heavily in here, I suggest you diagnose the problem to find the cause and address that one. For example: a brand new $300 battery won't help you much if the starter does not engage. ;)
(feel free to PM me to discuss or you can try your mechanic first - if he's worth his weight in salt, he will know where to start)
 
If you need a split cowl, pick up a sabre saw at HF when you buy the battery charger.

Simple
 
Dan Thomas said:
Whoa. See this: http://skytec.aero/ and click on Lycoming and Continental to get an idea of the range of starters available. I count fifteen different starters. They're all different. The Ford solenoid might fit one of them.
Click to expand...

We were talking in context of a specific model which would replace my current starter. I didn’t pursue since I fixed mine for $150.

Dan Thomas said:
It occurred to me that 6PC might have had starter gear hangup. The gear teeth on the starter are bevelled a bit on the front of the teeth, and the engine's ring gear teeth are bevelled a bit on their aft side. The bevelling is to encourage the gear to mesh without a starter gear tooth trying to punch up against the back of a ring gear tooth and refuse to engage. There is enough of a flat spot remaining, though, for that to happen on rare occasions. The Skytec's design ensures that the starter motor doesn't energize until gear engagement has occured, hence the clunk and no action. The older Lycoming starters used an inertial bendix on a spiral-splined shaft, and the motor's sudden spinning was counted on to engage the gear. When that spline gets sticky/dirty/gummed up from guys oiling it (supposed to use dry silicone lube) it will just spin without engaging, or will grind against the ring gear and damage the teeth.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what happened to my RV-4 recently. Bendix drive died and chewed up my ring gear. Just swapped the ring gear and new Bendix drive last week.

758e3ccae90274814e45b4c1b5db81b1.jpg


New ring gear installed.

010026736a99d9e7ae438a54c290452b.jpg





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Took my plane out and taxiied it around (Too windy to enjoy flying) Started it a few times.
Zero issues whatsoever. Haven't charged the battery or anything.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Took my plane out and taxiied it around (Too windy to enjoy flying) Started it a few times.
Zero issues whatsoever. Haven't charged the battery or anything.
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I had an issue like that recently. Plane wouldn't turn over. Just heard a "click" when turning the key. Checked battery connections and they looked good. (we were at a grass strip with no facilities so couldn't charge battery). Turned prop over a few times and then it started fine. It was fine for a few more starts over the next few weeks. Then it did it again while at home with my A&P nearby. He said the starter was bad and replaced it. No problems since then (about 6 months and 50 or 60 starts).
 
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