Changing from front oil cooler to rear

[azevedoflyer]

All,
I bet somebody has changed from the classical upfront oil cooler (PA22/20-150HP) to rear baffle wall.
To convert from the Delco-Remy 12V generator to a PlanePower alternator, I am forced to go down this path.
Can anyone that has done it before share with me his experiences / solutions and possibly photos?
Greatly appreciated,
Miguel Azevedo
N8714D
PA22/20-150

PS: You can reach me at Azevedoflyer@gmail.com, if deciding to take this off-line.

[Steve Pierce]

I would leave it up front and modify the cooler mounts if it were me. A lot more work to move the cooler, reroute the lines, beef up the baffle, close in the nose bowl hole and get an approval than to simply modify the oil cooler brackets. I have some pictures here on page 1 and 3. http://www.supercub.org/photopost/showg ... 60&ppuser= (http://www.supercub.org/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=760&ppuser=)

[Stephen]

I just checked the Stewarts web site and did not find anything on this, but I believe I remember that they had recently got an STC to do the oil cooler change to the rear baffel.

[azevedoflyer]

Steve,
Thanks for pointing my nose in the right direction!
Might seem funny but my own son (18 y.o.!) used almost the same words!
It is, indeed, very doable.
The root cause for my problems I found yesterday: the generator circuit breaker had tripped and it took a mighty push to get it locked again!
No "Check List" push would have done it, as it did not!
Decided to change it ($100.00 - ouch!). Now, why did it trip open? When it did, a friend was flying my plane at dusk and had her lighted up as the proverbial Christmas tree.
Thanks,
Miguel

[Steve Pierce]

Found this older thread and wanted to update it. The Stewart brothers do have an STC for installing the oil cooler on the rear baffle. http://www.stewartsystems.aero/default.aspx

[JohnW]

Miguel!!! How'sit goin'? Whereya been?

Just FYI (and anybody else reading this, as well...) the CB problem you are reporting (H-A-R-D to reset) tells me you probably have the original Woods CB in there installed by Piper (eh?). The ones with the brick red "button" that wasn't designed for people to pull them open? These beauties were kinda "stiff" 50 years ago, and SOME of them are bona fide "Thumb-busters" now! I like to "cycle" my CBs (in place; "off/on") once a year, at least, and some of these are really ornery! To open OR close. The "trip" may have actually been a "nuisance trip". These breakers actually used to be somewhat "quite well known" for this pai in the butt. Having to reset them occasionally with no true malfunction "tripping them again right away", gave the pilot the false sense of security that a tripped breaker wasn't foretelling "the End of the World"... But...TOO MANY "nuisance trips", too often for my liking, resulted in MY changing over to "new fangled breakers" in MY airplanes, quite a bunch of years ago. CBs can also be notorious for NOT breaking when they should, when they get quite a number of years under their belt.

AS you can see, they aren't "cheap", either. Still, it's probably a "good maintenance practice" to change them out every fifty years or so, just on principle. Actually, I prefer something like "ten years and replace", and I use the ones Piper used at the END of the PA-22 Production Run (the W23 Series Tycos which Piper used in ALL the Colts. See, the W23X1AG25 is ALSO only $20.85 in the ACS hard catalog. list price). Huh. Better safe than sorry, I say. I haven't had a "nuisance trip" (OR, the dreaded "I CAN'T pull it BACK to shut it OFF!" trick) on that "life-limit cycle". "Solid, Night IFR people should probably be thinking "earlier". We ALL tend to take circuit breakers "for granted". Just a couple "extra 2 cents".

[Gilbert Pierce]

Don't normally or ad-normally catch John in a typo but you will have better luck with ACS or Googling W23X1A1G25. :o

[JohnW]

Don't normally or ad-normally catch John in a typo

Whoops. Very kind of you, Gilbert (not overly "true", but kind...). Sometimes I guess I'm guilty of FAT fingers, and it is probably equally as true that I might just sometimes have LIGHT fingers, now and again. This may not be much of an excuse, but if your "little finger" was hangin' around where it sometimes SHOULDN'T have been as many times as this one has (and been summarily CAUGHT and PUNISHED for its inattentiveness and lack of situational awareness), it might not always carry the full authority requested by the Central Nervous System, either. I swear the Central Scrutinizer TOLD IT to tap down on the number 1 key... and I thought it had been dutiful in its response.

While I'm at it, tho', I gotta ask about that small irony..."AD-normally"? Whuzzat? Is that a 21st century addition to Webster's, meaning the same thing as "ABnormally"? Ya know, like when the double redundant, MISUSED, "irregardless" somehow became mutually interchangeable with the perfectly good "irrespective" often enough to become legitimized in Webster's? I STILL don't understand what "regardless" ever meant, then, if we needed to have IRregardless in the language, too. I still say that's a double negative, and "irregardless" must mean "definitely WITH regard to" rather than without... wait! shouldn't it just be "irregard", "irregarded" or in some cases possibly "irregardedly"? But regardLESS, I mean, what more clear than THAT (oh, OTHER THAN "irrespective", of course!) does the "ir" perfix make it?

[pet peeve] {MY Spell checker rejects "irregardless", and offers "regardless" as the no. 1 "correction", and I think it is correct for doing so}

Next, will "axt" eventually become a simple alternative spelling for either "asked" OR "ask" and begin showing up in typed text?

[Gilbert Pierce]

While I'm at it, tho', I gotta ask about that small irony..."AD-normally"? Whuzzat? Is that a 21st century addition to Webster's, meaning the same thing as "ABnormally"?

John -You win: ad-normal- no dictionary results

[Tripod]

I installed an InterAv Alternator kit on my PA-22-135 a number of years ago and it did not require moving the original oil cooler. It was a relatively easy installation, it works great and has been trouble-free. I had to replace one CB and add one more, which required fabricating a new CB panel. Easy chore. All in all, a good upgrade.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... avkits.php (http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/interavkits.php)

-dave

[Stephen]

Miguel!!! How'sit goin'? Whereya been?

Just FYI (and anybody else reading this, as well...) the CB problem you are reporting (H-A-R-D to reset) tells me you probably have the original Woods CB in there installed by Piper (eh?). The ones with the brick red "button" that wasn't designed for people to pull them open? These beauties were kinda "stiff" 50 years ago, and SOME of them are bona fide "Thumb-busters" now! I like to "cycle" my CBs (in place; "off/on") once a year, at least, and some of these are really ornery! To open OR close. The "trip" may have actually been a "nuisance trip". These breakers actually used to be somewhat "quite well known" for this pai in the butt. Having to reset them occasionally with no true malfunction "tripping them again right away", gave the pilot the false sense of security that a tripped breaker wasn't foretelling "the End of the World"... But...TOO MANY "nuisance trips", too often for my liking, resulted in MY changing over to "new fangled breakers" in MY airplanes, quite a bunch of years ago. CBs can also be notorious for NOT breaking when they should, when they get quite a number of years under their belt.

AS you can see, they aren't "cheap", either. Still, it's probably a "good maintenance practice" to change them out every fifty years or so, just on principle. Actually, I prefer something like "ten years and replace", and I use the ones Piper used at the END of the PA-22 Production Run (the W23 Series Tycos which Piper used in ALL the Colts. See, the W23X1AG25 is ALSO only $20.85 in the ACS hard catalog. list price). Huh. Better safe than sorry, I say. I haven't had a "nuisance trip" (OR, the dreaded "I CAN'T pull it BACK to shut it OFF!" trick) on that "life-limit cycle". "Solid, Night IFR people should probably be thinking "earlier". We ALL tend to take circuit breakers "for granted". Just a couple "extra 2 cents".


Garison Keillor and the English Major's Club could not have done better....

[JohnW]

Garison Keillor and the English Major's Club could not have done better....

Wow. You know who Garrison Keillor is - AND EVEN SPELLED HIS NAME CORRECTLY!- and you're breaking MY stones? I'm gonna HAVE TO insist you cut ME some slack!

[Stephen]

Garison Keillor and the English Major's Club could not have done better....

Wow. You know who Garrison Keillor is - AND EVEN SPELLED HIS NAME CORRECTLY!- and you're breaking MY stones? I'm gonna HAVE TO insist you cut ME some slack!


Almost...

[JohnW]

True, if you mean about the stones. "Almost"... ;)