The control cable which is a perpetual issue on Lyco/Conti installations is the prop governor cable, which is right at the front. There is a sleeve over the end which aims to stop water getting in, and normally one puts oil in there regularly. Filling it with grease would be neat but I see no easy way of doing it. One would need to construct a gadget which goes over the end, allows the centre wire to pass through, and has a grease nipple on it. But I have never heard of that cable freezing up – except through corrosion, but paradoxically in my case the corrosion was at the cockpit end….
I’ll look at the IO-550 tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure the mixture and throttle cables don’t have any extra protection at the sheath end.
Peter, I think we Rotax-jockeys who are commited to VFR do more often have to fly through rain than you IFR on top 
I’m pretty sure the mixture and throttle cables don’t have any extra protection at the sheath end
Yes, but their ends are underneath the engine so fairly well protected.
The data posted here suggests the temperature rise across the engine is around 50C so not enough to turn water into gas (well not unless the OAT is +50C ) so there will still be some liquid water below the engine, but the airflow direction down there will be mostly vertical.
And the two control cables down there are as good as new, on my aircraft, after 13 years.
On the Continental they are on top, pointing forward.
The finned box is a Ducati Energia rectifier/regulator, and if you’d like to hear the storied history of that particular component’s history on Italian motorcycles since the mid-70s, I could oblige…. I thought not. Probably the biggest issue traditionally has been resistive heating of the connections right at the box, leading to over heating and failure of the internals. In the mid-90s or so they changed the design to a pig tail exiting the box and a Molex style connector maybe 10 cm away from the box. That helped a lot. I’m surprised to see the earlier version in Peter’s photo.
I’ve never seen many problems with Bing carb cables on BMWs, where they are located between carbs and engine case, just ahead of your feet on both sides. I have a BMW like that (my ‘mule’) on which the carb levers and cables are ugly and corroded, but they continue to work fine. Spring breakages are a bigger issue with tension only cables and spring return. Spring ends do break occasionally.
http://www.silent-hektik.com/UL_R_912.htm
160 bucks and a couple screws later, problem solved.
Silvaire, the same rectifier/regulator was on my 912, I always trusted that was a new engine when installed on the plane in 2010. It has been replaced by a German free-market alternative since, to full satisfaction.
I am not saying your remark about the quality of the connectors is untrue, but the main complaint I heard about the Ducati stuff is the limited current capacity – do I remember 15 amps?
@Shorrick: or 92€ (plus MWs plus carriage) for mine .
17 amps on the original ducati part.
Yes, Jan, the moral being that things move on rather quickly and problems are solved rather cheaply in the “uncertified” arena.
There have been quite a number of aftermarket replacements for the Ducati Energia rectifier/regulator over the last 40 years and Silent Hektik makes good stuff. I currently own five motorcycles from two different manufacturers that originally came with these R/Rs, and having been fixing them since the late 80s its a standard preventative change. They were a bigger issue when fitted to brand new bikes in the 80s and 90s and were being replaced under warranty with identical parts…. that then failed again. Quality went up and down in waves as PM alternator output rose over the years, and single phase became three phase and back again.
