Keith Lane
Pattern Altitude
Yesterday, as I was flying along, just minding my own business, I looked at my ammeter and noticed that instead of a nice, half-needle width to the positive side, I had a not-so-nice opposite effect.
Sooo... I checked the breaker, nope.
I cycled the alternator off and on, nope again.
With only a 30 minute flight to continue on (it was VFR and into an uncontrolled field) I made sure only one radio was on and continued to the destination.
After shutdown, I looked in the cowl opening to see if I had popped a belt or something. Nope.
Rocking the prop back and forth revealed that the alternator has apparently dis-assembled itself in situ.
The pulley and fan rotate, the housing (the cast part) is stationary, but the middle part, with the multiple plates if loose enough to move back and forth three quarters of an inch or so. This is obviously a major malfunction, to quote NASA.
The question now is, where would one get a replacement, original type alternator for an O-320-E2D, and what would one expect to pay? These have got to be common, I just don't know where to start looking. I don't need a lightweight all powerful unit, the original type will do fine.
Thanks,
Keith
Sooo... I checked the breaker, nope.
I cycled the alternator off and on, nope again.
With only a 30 minute flight to continue on (it was VFR and into an uncontrolled field) I made sure only one radio was on and continued to the destination.
After shutdown, I looked in the cowl opening to see if I had popped a belt or something. Nope.
Rocking the prop back and forth revealed that the alternator has apparently dis-assembled itself in situ.
The pulley and fan rotate, the housing (the cast part) is stationary, but the middle part, with the multiple plates if loose enough to move back and forth three quarters of an inch or so. This is obviously a major malfunction, to quote NASA.
The question now is, where would one get a replacement, original type alternator for an O-320-E2D, and what would one expect to pay? These have got to be common, I just don't know where to start looking. I don't need a lightweight all powerful unit, the original type will do fine.
Thanks,
Keith
