True Rich... I pull mine out of the water after every flight and never get
the barnacles :-) The pond i launch form has an altitude measured in single
digit feet.
Sigtaturea
Noel Loveys
Campbellton, NL, Canada
CDN AME intern, PP-Rec
C-FINB, Kitfox III-A
912 almost installed
Aerocet 1100 floats
noelloveys@yahoo.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kitfox-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-kitfox-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of rcsfca
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 5:14 PM
To: kitfox-list@matronics.com
Subject: Re: Rotax 912UL no start
Even though several months have passed since you heard about the problem, it
was not actually solved until 10 days ago. We tried each of the numerous
suggestions that were offered but in the end, I had to have a technician
from California Power Systems, the western U.S. distributor for Rotax, come
out to my hangar (at Concord, CA (CCR) ) and go through the problem.
Up to that point, I put a lot of attention on the battery (new Odyssey plus
an aviation-designed trickle charger from VDC) and the fuel. Neither changed
the no-start although the cranking was top-notch!
When the tech came out, he took about an hour, with instruments to determine
that both of the Ducati ignition modules were not working, but for different
reasons. One of them was completely out of service and had to be replaced.
The other had corrosion on several of the leads buried in that wiring stack
that sits next to the modules. The corrosion was cleaned up, and guess what
happened? It started immediately (and continues to start immediately),
within seconds of cranking. We re-balanced the carbs and the work was done.
The Ducati unit was $800 and the labor (welcome to California) was $400.
In a way, I wish the problem had been something that you Kitfox detectives
cleverly knew about and could have been fixed without the tech (and without
the $1200 parts and labor) but the plane is 15 years old now and, well, you
know how it goes. At least we don't have to haul our planes out of the water
every year and scrape barnacles off the bottom...
Thanks again,
Rich Cunningham
Model IV-1200 912UL
SF East Bay (CCR)
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http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=216436#216436
