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Had a mildly scary incident yesterday and hope the list can give me some
ideas.
I was out for my weekly Saturday morning flight when I suddenly smelled
electrical smoke! No visible smoke. This only lasted for a couple of
seconds (seemed m_u_c_h longer), then the smell would go away. The
ampmeter showed no discharge, actually was showing a slight charge which
seemed normal.
I immediately turned around and headed for the airport. All electrical
equipment continued to work normally. This event repeated itself 3 or 4
times before I got down. I noticed that the ampmeter would show FULL
charge, the needle actually would bang against the peg when the smell
appeared. Shutting down the radios and transponder had no effect
positive or negative. I kept the master on while trying to trouble
shoot the problem (that was probably not a good idea!).
After I got it back in the hanger I opened up the cowl and could see no
visible damage nor could I detect any lingering smell. Same for under
the instrument panel. However, when I opened the baggage compartment I
could detect the burnt electrical smell. A brief examination did not
reveal any damaged wiring, but I did not look too closely.
My theory is that something caused the generator to go to full output,
apparently beyond what it normally should output and this overloaded
something causing the smell. At first I thought that the regulator
would be the culprit but others have pointed out other possibilities.
The possible defects that have been mentioned are:
1) Shorted cell in battery
2) Positive lead from battery intermittently shorting, causing the
regulator to think the battery was low and calling
for the generator to supply current.
3) Bad regulator
I am in hopes someone can point me in the right direction and suggest a
diagnostic procedure to follow to track down the problem.
The fact that it is intermittent will make finding the problem more
difficult I am sure, but yesterday I was very happy that the problem was
intermittent.
thanks in advance,
Maynard Kealiher
Ercoupe 415-C - N3005H
Centennial Airport, Denver, CO
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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