AOG for over a year and waiting on a conti crankshaft - Boeing has missed three "guaranteed" ship dates

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Adventure

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Adventure
Hello team POA. Frequent lurker here looking for any help or advice...

The TLDR version is: I'm desparately looking for Continental crankshaft with model # 653129, for a Piper Turbo Arrow IV.

Just under two years ago my wife and I purchased a 1982 Turbo Arrow IV with relatively low total time and like 275 hours since OH on the Continental TSIO360FB. I went through IFR training in it and a handful of nice long XC trips, when at about 9 months new-to-us it suffered a broken exhaust spring and it was decided to replace that cylinder. After the crank was installed and the case torqued to spec, during warmup the prop stopped when a cam struck the case. This required that the crankshaft be sent for testing. It first went to Bolduc and from there was sent to Aircraft Specialties in Oklahoma who suggested the crankshaft be machined and polished or whatever they do. Four months. Then right as that was due back is when we were alerted that it was being red-tagged as "front main had corrosion in front and radius", and it got shipped back to my mechanic. He then ordered a new crankshaft through the Boeing distributor. It was backordered but with an allocation date of May 31. That date came and went then a new "guaranteed ship date" of July 31. That date came and went with a new "guaranteed ship date" of September 30. That was yesterday. And now... March 2026!

It's been 13 months now that the plane has been in the hangar with no engine attached. Any ideas or suggestions?
 
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That sucks. I'm guessing there are no PMA crankshaft for that engine either.

I'd start calling other shops and try continental directly, might spend a few hours on the phone for nothing or strike gold.
 
Adventure said:
Any ideas or suggestions?
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Is your mechanic handling the work? As mentioned, have him call around to every engine he can think of. Also look on TAP for leads. And don't forget a used/serviceable option.
 
It's a very well respected local mechanic who also happens to be a good friend of mine who will be doing the work. He's made lots of calls already with no luck. Until now I've stayed naively hopeful since we were always just "a month or two out" based on the ship dates. The 1 year anniversary of it not flying was bad and I didn't even know I could be any more dejected about it until the gut-punch today. Like, I just never even thought about or realized what an un-insured financial position we were in. It's literally worthless without a part that is apparently entirely impossible to get.
 
Sounds very very familiar to my story in 2020/2021.
Bought a used TSIO-550; yay the crank got redtagged for a crack at an oil passage.
I did my own legwork because my completely useless overhauler wouldn't even make the effort "there are none".
I was looking in France, South America, Canada, and every place in the USA with the remotest connection to a new overhauled or just used crank. (so to some extent he was right but he did this to me on everything)

Did Not Give Up.
Finally, Jesse at Colorado Air Parts pulled one out of his magic hat - a brand new one!
(as you can imagine, when supply is low and demand is high the price does this weird thing...)

PS if it makes you feel better, my downtime was Oct 2020 to Apr 2023. Not all because of the crank.

Also, I don't get how you went from cylinder replacement to engine teardown?
And did you say the "cam struck the case"?

Good luck, pal.

Oh, Jesse:

Jesse Robinson
Colorado Air Parts
659 Crawford Ave
Delta, Co 81416
970-874-7575 shop
970-209-0183 cell
Jesse@coairparts.com
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Sounds very very familiar to my story in 2020/2021.
Bought a used TSIO-550; yay the crank got redtagged for a crack at an oil passage.
I did my own legwork because my completely useless overhauler wouldn't even make the effort "there are none".
I was looking in France, South America, Canada, and every place in the USA with the remotest connection to a new overhauled or just used crank. (so to some extent he was right but he did this to me on everything)

Did Not Give Up.
Finally, Jesse at Colorado Air Parts pulled one out of his magic hat - a brand new one!
(as you can imagine, when supply is low and demand is high the price does this weird thing...)

PS if it makes you feel better, my downtime was Oct 2020 to Apr 2023. Not all because of the crank.

Also, I don't get how you went from cylinder replacement to engine teardown?
And did you say the "cam struck the case"?

Good luck, pal.

Oh, Jesse:

Jesse Robinson
Colorado Air Parts
659 Crawford Ave
Delta, Co 81416
970-874-7575 shop
970-209-0183 cell
Jesse@coairparts.com
Click to expand...
Thank you. Email sent and I'll call him in the morning. And yes "cam struck the case" is how it was described to me. The only thing a team of experienced mechanics way smarter than me could come up with is that possibly the case had been somehow loose and vibrating, and when it got torqued to spec after the new cylinder was installed there was somehow less room for the cams than before. The propeller apparently had spun through by hand just fine. And it ran at idle for about ten minutes then seized when it warmed up. Later after it cooled apparently it pulled through again no problem. My understanding is there's an A/D whereby if the crankshaft comes out for any reason it must be sent for testing. And so the story began (a year+ ago)...
 
"a cam struck the case"

Is this a thing? I have never worked on any aero engine, I have rebuilt many auto engines. I can't imagine "a cam struck the case" as being a thing.

How is the camshaft end-float controlled in these engines?
 
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Omalley1537 said:
It would also explain having to suddenly send the crank off…
Click to expand...

For everyone’s information/consideration, there are some unusual ADs on the Continental IO-360 cranks that require inspection even if nothing was wrong. I’m not suggesting that mistakes weren’t made, just mentioning that sending the crank in may have been collateral damage due to the ADs.
 
Is there an STC for an engine without parts availability issues? I cant imagine how frustrating that is. As if I needed more inspiration to go experimental!
 
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