Starter question

flyingbrit, my apologies, I did not read enough of the information. They now use that specific B/K 310 meter at my former employer in place of the more sensitive, but less convenient old meter. Purchase price of the old meter was in the neighborhood of $10,000, in the 1980's.
 
flyingbrit said:
Balderdash! If you'd read and understood the data sheet you would realize the 0.2 ohms is full scale on the lowest range. Resolution is 100 micro-ohms, or 10 times as good as your meter at work. 200 amps and 100 micro-ohms is a voltage drop of 0.02 volts so this meter would be quite effective for measuring starter circuits.
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Still, for $512 compared to much less than $100 for the typical all-purpose VOM, what's the point? The contactor still has to be actuated to get the reading, and with the $512 instrument you won't see the true resistance due to the heating of the contacts as the current flows though that resistance. Resistance rises with heat. The contactor would also have to be disconnected from the battery. Voltage drop readings are, in the end, quicker and truer. ANd for that, I prefer my old analog VOM. Digital meters just have the numbers jumping around as the voltage drop changes with compression strokes. A moving needle shows trends much better. I know, I'm old. But I can also tell time from an old clock, too. :)

Not saying that I'd like that fancy instrument. I like nice stuff. But a megohmmeter would have been be handier, for checking static wicks at annuals. A fellow mechanic found one at a garage sale for $5 or something like that. Worth several hundred bucks. A digital oscilloscope would be nice, too, to replace my dinky little ancient Enco.
 
Dan - You don't want a digital oscilloscope unless you fully understand aliasing. I have a 55 year old HP 130C that will become part of my estate.....
 
nrpetersen said:
Dan - You don't want a digital oscilloscope unless you fully understand aliasing. I have a 55 year old HP 130C that will become part of my estate.....
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Thanks. I just read a little about that. I can see where the sampling might produce a waveform not true to the input signal. I'll stick with an old analog 'scope. I don't need the fancy stuff anyway.

Am I in your will?:)
 
Update on my starter.

My A&P borrowed the Heavy Duty starter from his plane and installed it in my plane. It made a huge difference in the speed the starter turns the engine over, and it started within a few blades when cold. It used to take 10-12 seconds of chugging to start. Hot was worse. Much worse. On our hot start today after refueling in the Florida heat, it started in about 5 or 6 seconds. It never did that before.

We can argue over the methodology or the causes, but all I care about is that it helped a lot.
 
JOhnH said:
Is there any measurable way to determine if a starter is spinning the engine fast enough? My lightweight starter doesn't seem to be spinning the engine fast enough and it is becoming harder and harder to start, even cold but especially hot. I'm considering swapping it out for a heavy duty starter and if that doesn't fix it, I might have the adapter replaced, but I'd like to have some sort of benchmark to let me know if that might actually help. The current starter is about 2 or 3 years old and we have really tried to follow the advice regarding starter engagement times and cooling off periods, but it seem half of our startups are hot-starts and make higher demands on the battery and the starter. (It is a relatively new Concorde battery).
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SkyTec has a great troubleshooting chart on their website... just a normal voltmeter is used to check Voltage Drop along the circuit, and they provide go/no go values and advice.
 
PaulMillner said:
SkyTec has a great troubleshooting chart on their website... just a normal voltmeter is used to check Voltage Drop along the circuit, and they provide go/no go values and advice.
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I'm sorry, but what's your point?

I don't know if you kept up with the thread or just read one or two posts, so I don't know what you are addressing.
But . . .

My A&P/IA has been troubleshooting my issue. He determined that it probably needed a starter. He hung a loaner starter, and it turns out he was right. He usually is so I trust him.
 
JOhnH said:
I'm sorry, but what's your point?
[/quote

My, aren't you cranky! Perhaps you're not familiar with the idiom here... folks, like you, ask for help... other people out of the goodness of their heart offer assistance. That is not well-supported by the original poster (that's you in this case) responding intemperately to those attempts to assist. Perhaps it's a bad day, we all have them.

My A&P/IA was right. He usually is, so I trust him.
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So... why are YOU here?

Your original question was, "Is there any measurable way to determine if a starter is spinning the engine fast enough?" The answer is yes... I referred you to S-Tec's troubleshooting chart. Essentially, if you see 10 volts at the starter while it's cranking, then you're getting what you need for it to perform.

OTOH, if there's either electrical resistance problems external to the starter, or high current draw issues with the starter, the voltage will be lower... and you'll know you are NOT getting enough energy to/from the starter, and need to remedy the issue. The troubleshooting chart goes on to describe how you narrow down the nexus of difficulty.

But feel free to stop reading at any point! However... I'd encourage you to be pleasant when asking others for assistance. Things go SO much more smoothly that way!
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Sorry. I didn't mean to sound cranky. I was just wondering if you had read that the problem has already been resolved. I would not have felt right going back to my A&P and asking him to troubleshoot the problem again after it is fixed.
 
JOhnH said:
Sorry. I didn't mean to sound cranky. I was just wondering if you had read that the problem has already been resolved. I would not have felt right going back to my A&P and asking him to troubleshoot the problem again after it is fixed.
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sometimes these threads aren't all about you! :)

I composed my reply offline, as some of us do. I hadn't seen your update, but even reading it now, it's not clear if you're done, or just posting an update, as you said... best wishes in starter land. Live long and rotate!
 
PaulMillner said:
sometimes these threads aren't all about you! :)

I composed my reply offline, as some of us do. I hadn't seen your update, but even reading it now, it's not clear if you're done, or just posting an update, as you said... best wishes in starter land. Live long and rotate!
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I'm never done trying to make improvements. But my starter issue has been resolved. My new heavy duty starter spins the prop MUCH faster than the old light weight starter and the engine seems to start proportionately faster. Well worth the single AMU it cost.

And if my last post didn't quite come out sounding like an apology, then I guess I failed again. Your post was among those that addressed my original question. It just came a little late.
 
I really love my new H.D. starter. Flew to a nearby airport today to test out hot-starts. We landed, walked into the cafe, ordered a cup of Iced tea and about 15 minutes later we fired the Bo up. It started on the first attempt.
:happydance::rollercoaster: :biggrin:
 
Just to throw my own worthless observations into the ring, even after an original poster's issues have been addressed and solved, continuing contributions frequently help others and are informative. No reason not to add further information...it's quite appreciated, @PaulMillner . Also appreciate your relaxed manner and responses.
 
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