Starter adapter CCI-90-L-1
Lycoming aircraft engines.
The complete document set consists of the following:
Six pages of "A" size blueprints
Four pages of instruction.
One page: Bill of materials
MATERIALS suppliers are listed in order of prices and performance. Their
inclusion on this list is not necessarily an endorsement although some
suppliers, like Dillsburg, have developed a large following because of their
demonstrated willingness to provide prompt, personalized service. If a local
vendor has prices that are equal to or better than those merchants listed,
for the same grade and type of material, by all means use them.
FABRICATION: of the starter bracket is straight forward. All drawings are full
scale except for sheet 6 which shows the gear-tooth relationships. Sheets
2 and 4 of the plans-set were plotted so as to eliminate the need for doing
precision layouts on the raw steel plate. Sheets 1,3,5 & 6 are data sheets
only. Use a spray adhesive to attach the templates to the raw material.
Then, center-punch, drill and cut per the template. It is suggested that
when cutting and shaping the two primary metal parts that all edges be
"broken" with a file and contoured so as to not present any sharp edges.
Remember that it is likely that you may want to work around the engine at
some point in the future and it doesn't make any sense to leave sharp edges
on any fabricated part that will cause injuries. Part alignment is
important. The few problems encountered with the installation, have all been
attributed to mis-alignment of the two parts during welding. The welding
should be done by a professional. The two pieces must be perpendicular to
one another after the welding and heat treatment are completed.
INSTALLING THE BRACKET: While one individual claimed that he was able to install
the assembly without pulling the propeller and ring gear, we found that
trying to work around them made things needlessly difficult and time
consuming. In order to install the starter and bracket, it is suggested that
the prop be taken off. With the propeller removed, the ring-gear can be
easily slipped from the nose of the crankshaft after the two flat head
screws are removed. Before positioning the starter bracket, clean and sand
the aluminum pad on the crankcase where the bracket will sit. Bolt the
bracket to the pad with the same starter fasteners provided by Lycoming for
that purpose. If a belt driven accessory is being powered off the ring-gear,
check to see if will slip under the starter weldment and onto the ring gear
without difficulty. If the interference is only slight, file away a small
portion of the nose plate at that corner which interferes. DO NOT grind away
any of the base plate!
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CAUTION: the new bracket is thinner than the base of the original starter.
Take care that the bolts are not so long that they bottom. Either cut the
bolts to size or purchase new bolts. Use new split washers to insure that
the bracket is properly grounded electrically to the crankcase of the
engine. Safety wire the four fasteners which secure the bracket to the
engine.
INSTALLING THE STARTER: Position the starter within the bracket and secure using
the two 10 mm bolts specified in the bill of materials. Be sure to use star
washers under the head of the both bolts. Snug the bolts up finger tight
only.
Using channel lock pliers, or their equivalent, grip the nose of the pinion
gear and carefully pull the pinion gear out of the starter it's full travel.
The return spring is not a light one so you'll have to assert yourself.
While holding the gear in the full extended position with the pliers, use
your other hand to slip a single-edge razor blade or thin feeler gauge
behind the gear. This will keep the spring from snatching the gear back into
the starter housing. The pinion gear is now in a position that will
facilitate clearance checking and adjustment.
Now position the Lycoming ring gear on the nose of the crankshaft, checking
for interference with the starter pinion. Do not force anything. Rotate both
the ring gear and starter pinion so as to obtain the tooth orientation
depicted on diagram six of the enclosed plans. Using a 1/16 inch drill bit
as a feeler gauge, test the tooth clearance as shown. Note that you are
checking from the square top of a ring gear tooth to the square root of a
pinion tooth.
If the clearance is not sufficient, remove the ring-gear and starter and
slightly elongate the "B" hole in the direction of travel needed until the
drill bit slips freely between the teeth. The large pinion access hole is
oversize to accommodate the small amount of travel needed and should not
require enlargement for this process. Once proper tooth clearance has been
established, torque the two ten mm bolts to 30 foot pounds and safety wire
both to each other using appropriate safety wire and accepted methods.
Carefully remove the razor or feeler gauge from behind the pinion. Watch
your fingers when the pinion is snapped back! Now reinstall the ring-gear
and propeller.
ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS: Attach the existing heavy starter cable. Keep the cable
length as short as possible and secure it to the engine using appropriate
straps. This starter has a built in solenoid so no external solenoid is
needed. If your aircraft is equipped with a starter solenoid which is
activated by a grounding circuit, you should remove the solenoid completely
and replace the two heavy cables that were on either side to one unit.
Convert the grounding circuit to a simple switched circuit. If there is no
such circuit and no existing wires, you must run a hot wire from the
electrical buss, through a starter button or switch on your panel and from
there to the solenoid contact on the starter. The wire gauge for that
circuit should minimally be 18. 16 gauge is better but the most important
factor in determining the wire gauge is the length of the cable run. The
solenoid draws little current in activating the starter, so don't over do
it.
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RING-GEARS: Lycoming engines use ring gears either with 122 or 149 teeth with
the 122 being the most popular. This installation is optimized for the 122
tooth ring gear which is the gear that Lycoming chooses to use on all the
O-235's and the larger 0-540's and O-720's. The mid range power plants
(O-320's and 360's) are equipped with 149 tooth ring gears and while the
starter can be made to work with that ring-gear, we don't recommend it. The
tooth contact pattern is not optimized and we believe that a detrimental
wear pattern could eventually occur. We have been assured by mechanics in
the field that all Lycoming ring gears are mutually interchangeable across
the entire Lycoming piston engine line. If you have a 149 tooth ring gear,
we suggest you consider swapping for the 122 tooth unit.
PROPER GROUNDING: Check the existing ground strap (if there is one). If there
is any doubt regarding it's capacity or ability to support the current drawn
by the starter, replace the strap with one of a larger size. Remember that
starters are the single highest electrical consumers on the aircraft and
will only perform properly when the current can be fed through adequate
circuitry.
If there is no ground strap, you must provide one from the engine to the
airframe or, if a composite or wooden aircraft, you must provide a return
ground all the way back to the battery. Woven belt type ground straps are
relatively inexpensive, are designed to withstand engine vibrations without
failure and can be purchased locally at auto-parts stores. The test
aircraft, Long-Ez N-67EB, uses soft copper plumbing pipe as the ground buss
with a good grade of multistrand welding cable running through its center
as the other current carrying leg.
The ground strap can be attached almost anywhere on the engine but the
closer to the starter, the better. You can attach a belt type ground strap,
using a star washer, to the newly fabricated starter bracket with one of the
four bolts that secures the bracket to the engine pad. Conventional, round
battery cables are usually too thick to be used in the narrow space between
the starter motor and the bracket.
CAUTION: Do not attempt to fasten a grounding strap with one of the two ten
mm bolts! Aside from the fact that this compromises the physical integrity
of the starter/bracket installation, there is very little clearance between
the moving ring gear and the starter. You run the risk of entangling the
strap in the ring gear when the engine is running!
SOME PRECAUTIONS REGARDING FASTENERS: The aero-space industry has been plagued
with bogus bolts whose makers portray them as aircraft grade when they are,
in fact, considerably lower in tensile strength. The two 10 mm x 1.25 pitch
bolts specified on the bill of materials were carefully chosen to satisfy
the demands of this application. Do not substitute common automotive grade
bolts such as supplied by auto-parts stores!
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None of the bolt suppliers we contacted were able to supply metric fasteners
with heads pre-drilled for safety wire, at least not at prices we considered
reasonable. Unless you have access to a supplier of metric fasteners who can
provide pre-drilled bolts, we suggest you simply drill the bolt-heads
yourself. You can easily prepare the heads for safety wire in a drill press
with a 1/16" drill. Be certain to chamfer both the entry and exit sides of
each hole with a countersink so as not to chafe the safety wire.
We considered drilling out the metric threads on the starter housing and
retapping the bosses to the next American size. We even considered
installing Heli-coil inserts. While this would have facilitated the
selection of US standard aircraft fasteners, it would also reduced the
amount of material actually supporting the starter and the modification
would have ruined the core value. It would also complicate future
replacement and make matters far more expensive.
One of the advantages of using a stock unit is that a replacement can be
found on the shelf of practically any auto-parts store in the Country and
installed "as-is". If the older unit has been modified, not only is it
likely to be rejected by a vendor as an exchange unit but you will now be
faced with having to drill and tap the replacement starter before it can be
installed. We believe that the starter unit should be used "as-is" without
modifications.
IMPORTANT
ALL MATERIALS ARE SUBJECT TO FAILURE FROM FATIGUE. NONE ARE EXCEPTED FROM
THIS FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF PHYSICS. WE BELIEVE IT PRUDENT AND IN THE INTERESTS
OF SAFETY TO PERIODICALLY REMOVE WELDED DEVICES FROM THE A/C AND TO
MAGNAFLUX OR X-RAY THEM BEFORE RETURNING THEM TO SERVICE.
THIS SHOULD BE PERFORMED AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR, PREFERABLY DURING THE
"ANNUAL" FOR NON-AEROBATIC AIRCRAFT AND MORE FREQUENTLY FOR MACHINES USED
TO PERFORM AEROBATIC MANEUVERS.
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BILL OF MATERIALS
ITEM: 3/16" 4130 Chrome-Moly Steel plate
QUANTITY: 4" x 10" (minimum for one complete bracket)
SUPPLIERS:
Dillsburg Airplane Works, (deals exclusivly in metals)
RD #3, Dillsburg, PA 17019 (717) 432-4589
Wicks Aircraft Supply, (limited & not as specialized)
410 Pine Street, Highland, IL 62249 (800) 221-9425
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ITEM: 10 mm Metric Fasteners
QUANTITY: two 10mm x 1.25 bolts 23 mm long (grade 10.9)
two M10 flat washers
SUPPLIERS:
Auto-Metrics Incorporated Metric Screw & Tool Company
24893 Hathaway 9 Lake Street
Farmington, Michigan 48018 Wakefield, Mass 01880
(313) 477-8001 (800) 638-7421 (617) 245-4950
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ITEM: Starter 12 Volt DC, 1.9 hp geared unit; Lester Number 16760
QUANTITY: One
SUPPLIERS: Check local automotive parts jobbers
Note: “Lester Numbers” are the automotive equivalent of wattage in light
bulbs and AN values in fasteners. A Lester Number is of more value to you
than what year or car the unit was in, simply because different starter
manufacturers will often supply one starter style to many car
manufactures. Use the Lester number when asking for starter units and be
sure the unit is really re-manufactured, not just cleaned and spray
painted as some will do.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Computer Certainty, Inc,
Post Office Box 494
Milford, New Jersey
08848 - 0494
E-mail: CCIVORTEX @ BLAST.NET
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Labels: Auto Part