Continental Engines and Skytech Starters
CASWELL P
Engines that have installed or are thinking about installing a new permanent
magnet light weight starter, a common known brand such as Skytech.
History: I have a 1979 Seneca that I have completely restored and in the
process I added two new skytech starters to reduce my overall empty weight. I
had purchased skytech starters for my Cherokee 180 and Cherokee 6 and was quite
pleased.
First problem I ran into was that their heavy-duty starters did not work at
all. Skytech ended up sending out a recall notice and they replaced them with
their normal lightweight design. I then added copper cables to assist the
starting procedure.
I flew the plane for about 40 hours over a period of 45 days and the only
abnormality I had experienced was on occasion my right engine would turn over
half a blade then stop. So I asked my A&P to change the oil on both engines
and check to see if there was a problem. My A&P ran across the same behavior
but also heard what I was not hearing in the cockpit. There was a grinding
noise coming from the starter and starter adapter area.
After disassembly of the starter adapter we found that the spring on the gear
shaft was broken. As I understand, starter adapters on Continentals have
always been a common weak point. So I ordered a new starter adapter, which was
over $1,000 with an added core charger of $1,200. A note was included with the
new starter adapter that warned about placing the starter adapter on an engine
that had a new permanent magnet lightweight starter. The note continued on to
say that the new lightweight starter did not allow the spring on the gear shaft
to be released after the engine started. Continued operation in this state
could possibly cause catastrophic failure of either the starter or starter
adapter.
My first call was to skytech to understand what the problem was and see what
solution they might suggest. I was told that as long as I had enough oil
lubricating the starter adapter shaft (which is the same oil supplied by the
engine) I should not have a problem. They were also quick to offer a full
refund if I was unhappy.
I called a few other people that either had the same problems or were shops
that overhauled starter adapters. One person said that they had seen failure of
starter adapters every 25 to 50 hours and recommended me to replace my
lightweight starters with the originals. I took the advice and had my A&P
replace both lightweight starters with my originals that I had retained since
they were still in good working order.
I called skytech again to see if they had knowledge that there were customers
out in the field having problems and what they were doing about them. Of
course they flatly denied responsibility and that the reports of problems were
small. As the person stated on the phone "The reports of any problems are in
an acceptable range compared to the number of starter that have been produced
since we first started selling them in September of 2000." Skytech did say
they were working on a new design that would allow the starter to spin freely
in both directions allowing the spring to release. I asked for a refund and
some sort of financial relief from them regarding the labor and starter adapter
replacement. They refused to refund any other money expect for the direct
costs of the starters. They feel that the fault lies in the design of the
starter adapter even though they are planning on coming out with a new starter
that addresses these issues.
My Rant: I feel that skytech is making a poor business decision not helping
their customers with the financial burden of a new starter adapter and labor in
order to keep their customers happy. Especially since the small amount of
people having problems is an "acceptable" level to them. By the way I just
received my $1,200 credit for the core charge of the old starter adapter minus
$460 since the shaft was beyond repair.
Newps
adapter that is made for their penchant of not releasing like the
regular starters. The Continental starter adapter is not a weak point.
The flaw is in the new starters. Call Niagara Airparts or read their
webpage about this very issue. > http://www.niagaraairparts.com/
I also thought about a new lightweight starter but after talking to them
I went with the regular starter and a new adapter made for the regular
starter. You will never get Skytech to tell you this. Their product is
worthless when you find out their $400 starter really costs $1500 more.