ersatzavian
06-02-2020, 11:05 PM
Hey Kitfox crew, happy to be here!
I bought a very fine Kitfox IV this weekend and ferried home today from KSZP to KOAK. We stopped just short at KSQL for fuel. I had some oil pressure trouble and grounded the plane at KSQL til we could sort it out.
On takeoff today at KSZP, my buddy Dave and I saw low oil pressure - intermittent drops into the mid-20s. I noted during inspections over the last two days that the sensor wire to the oil pressure sensor was damaged, and the pressure issue was intermittent and there were no other signs of trouble, so we carried on to our fuel stop at KSQL. It recurred a few times in brief spells. For most of the flight, we had pressures in the 30s and 40s. The readings were very noisy, very likely due to the damaged wire (fluctuations of 10+ psi over a few seconds).
Descending into KSQL, we saw pressures drop back into the mid to low 20s as we reduced power. We landed, refueled,mad some calls to get more info, did a runup, and saw the same issue. We took off and pressures dropped as low as 14 psi. We reduced power and landed back at KSQl.
We decowled the plane, cut a section of damaged wire from about the gearbox down to the pressure transducer (insulation was broken in about 10 places, with damage to the strands inside visible, and the crimp at the ring terminal was not solid and could be moved). We crimped a new length of wire with a fresh ring terminal in using a crimp splice as a temporary fix.
The wire harness fix corrected the noise but readings were still odd. We did a low-power runup to 2500 in parking and saw pressures steady between 26 and 28 psi, so we cowled back up and taxiied out to the runup. We ran up to 4000 RPM and saw pressures drop to about 21 psi. We taxiied back to transient and left the plane.
Does this ring a bell for anybody? Trying to get a read on whether to dig into the oil pump, regulator, or possible obstruction in the oil system, as well as whether any of today's ops might have done latent damage I now need to address.
I bought a very fine Kitfox IV this weekend and ferried home today from KSZP to KOAK. We stopped just short at KSQL for fuel. I had some oil pressure trouble and grounded the plane at KSQL til we could sort it out.
On takeoff today at KSZP, my buddy Dave and I saw low oil pressure - intermittent drops into the mid-20s. I noted during inspections over the last two days that the sensor wire to the oil pressure sensor was damaged, and the pressure issue was intermittent and there were no other signs of trouble, so we carried on to our fuel stop at KSQL. It recurred a few times in brief spells. For most of the flight, we had pressures in the 30s and 40s. The readings were very noisy, very likely due to the damaged wire (fluctuations of 10+ psi over a few seconds).
Descending into KSQL, we saw pressures drop back into the mid to low 20s as we reduced power. We landed, refueled,mad some calls to get more info, did a runup, and saw the same issue. We took off and pressures dropped as low as 14 psi. We reduced power and landed back at KSQl.
We decowled the plane, cut a section of damaged wire from about the gearbox down to the pressure transducer (insulation was broken in about 10 places, with damage to the strands inside visible, and the crimp at the ring terminal was not solid and could be moved). We crimped a new length of wire with a fresh ring terminal in using a crimp splice as a temporary fix.
The wire harness fix corrected the noise but readings were still odd. We did a low-power runup to 2500 in parking and saw pressures steady between 26 and 28 psi, so we cowled back up and taxiied out to the runup. We ran up to 4000 RPM and saw pressures drop to about 21 psi. We taxiied back to transient and left the plane.
Does this ring a bell for anybody? Trying to get a read on whether to dig into the oil pump, regulator, or possible obstruction in the oil system, as well as whether any of today's ops might have done latent damage I now need to address.