Alas, poor Yorick! The owner of a
murdered starter adapter contemplates
his options: Climb more slowly, buy
another lightweight starter, or go on a diet.
Key Takeaways:
The author initially faced battery failure, leading to the discovery of proper battery maintenance practices, including using water for topping off (not acid) and employing battery tenders.
The core problem, however, stemmed from an incompatibility between a specific lightweight starter model and the engine's clutch mechanism, which prevented the starter from freewheeling and caused significant wear.
This design flaw in the lightweight starter led to costly repairs of the starter adapter and required replacing the unit with an updated model featuring an electromagnetic clutch to prevent future issues.
The accumulated cost of troubleshooting, repairs, and replacing the problematic lightweight starter vastly outweighed any marginal benefits from its initial weight savings.
JUNE 2010 — Experience is the best teacher. Too bad she’s so mean.
I knew that my battery was slowly dying, but I was trying to put off buying a new one — two, actually, since my homebuilt, which has a 28-volt electrical system, uses a pair of Yuasa motorcycle batteries in series. After all, the airplane was still starting, however listlessly the starter turned the prop.
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Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.
