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Magneto Overhaul / IRAN (inspect & repair as necessary) and USA or Europe?

Silvaire wrote:

unless somebody else develops PMA parts to compete

Something completely different, but at Aero Friedrichshafen this year, I heard of a european turbocharger manufacturer who wanted to design PMA turbos for Lycoming and Conti’s, to compete with Hartzell.

I think/hope in the long run Hartzell’s hurting itself. Competition will eventually pick up.

Belgium

How much is the shipping cost? Is the difference in shipping between EU and US offset by the lower price?

Maybe $100 each way, which in the overall picture is ok, and using a company known to do a good job is more important, especially on such an important part. QAA have done a number of D3000 overhauls for me and in every case the mag drop was exactly the same on both halves.

I once used a well known UK firm and due to some irregularities found when it came back had to re-OH the magneto (at QAA) so had to pay twice…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

due to some irregularities found when it came back had to re-OH the magneto

It’s really weird how you can mess up a magneto overhaul, a magneto doesn’t contain that many parts.

In steps (in general for Bendix mags):

  • You completely disassemble the mag, strip the housing of paint and perform NDT inspection on it, if okay * > repaint them.
  • Discard old screws, capacitor(s), distributor gear(s), retaining rings, bearings, springs, carbon brush(es), felt strip(s) & washer(s) and contact assembl(y)(ies)
  • Clean all components
  • Check the distributor block for cracks, if cracked * > replace, if not clean/scrape the carbon off the electrodes.
  • Put new bushing oil in the distributor block bushing(s) and put the cam in oil, place both inside an oven (not too hot, or the bushings will come loose) for a few hours
  • Check the coil(s) for cracks, measure the resistance of the primary and secondary circuits.
  • Measure the bearing holes in the housing
  • Check all components for wear, cracks, and applicability (like batch codes of the distributor blocks…),… replace as required.
  • Check all service bulletins, airworthiness directives etc. related to the magneto.
  • Reassemble the magneto using correct torque settings, new bearing grease on the new bearings, Loctite 243 for the screws, grade B for bearing seats…, lubricate the distributor gear, correctly time the new contact assemblies and make sure they have the appropriate clearance, put continental bushing oil on the felt washer.

(Short version)
(There’s a bit more to it, but writing it down the list is getting longer than I originally thought(in my head), (can write down the long version too for anyone who’s interested)).

I just wanted to say if you follow the manual, it’s really not that difficult to overhaul a magneto assuming you have the right equipment and parts in stock. For a well known shop to mess up so bad that you need a re-overhaul, that’s something I’ve never heard off, they must have had either a very inexperienced (unsupervised) technician working on your mag or knowingly skipped a few steps or didn’t replace all mandatory replacement items… I don’t know.

Do you by any chance have records of and or pictures of that mag (of what was wrong with it), I’d be interested to see/know what went wrong.

Belgium

I mentioned it here. AFAIK the company was bought by another some years later.

The thing is that I’ve been in this GA game, as an owner, for 22 years, and it continues to surprise me how many people can’t do the most basic stuff. But that is no more than a reflection of wider society really…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

So true,
I also think it’s increasingly hard for companies to find good staff, many people just don’t want to work anymore, or don’t care. No matter what industry you’re in, It’s getting hard just to find people who still take pride in their work. :-(

Belgium

I just believed that only in my region does the problem of inaccurate and incompetent staff. Sadly, the good workforce has disappeared. I do my annuals with my mechanic together. Although he is a good guy, sometimes I have to point to the manual.
Yes, with the proper tools, anyone with basic engineering and mechanical knowledge can easily do many things. I am just getting afraid to send my magneto to any shops :).

Zsolt Szüle
LHTL, Hungary

I suggest doing what I did and buy one outright and keep an overhauled one on the shelf as a spare. Then you have zero downtime, and the shipping delay to the US is fine. I paid $2.5k, IIRC; ask QAA in Tulsa how much they want for an overhauled unit.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Thanks,

3100 USD but backorder only. I think this company also does the Hydraulic packs too…

Zsolt Szüle
LHTL, Hungary

I have as spares: magneto, fuel servo, various electrical parts e.g. the weird French circuit breakers, Flo-Scan fuel totaliser transducer (plus the instrument), KI256, KEA130A, KC225 computers, all the servos, most gaskets, etc.

A spare D3000 mag is definitely worth having, if only to save the obvious downtime while overhauling.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

A spare D3000 mag is definitely worth having, if only to save the obvious downtime while overhauling.

Well if you’re gonna send it to QAA it’s almost a requirement, last I heard they quoted 5 weeks for an overhaul. (Which is insane, knowing the job can easily be done in 2 days).

Also, I wanted to say, not everything is done better in the US, they’re facing the exact same problems as many a European company, and the argument of volumes being higher in the US, so US companies would have more experience is also kinda false since there are just a lot more of them.

Belgium
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