Ken Powell wrote:

Paul,
George Graham posted a note on the Plugs Up list that he had a
failure on his gearbox.  I wish that I had kept the post but I
expected him to forward it here as well.  Anyway, IIRC he stated
that the engine was running rough, maybe only on 1 rotor, during
a ground test.  He shut it down and while looking things over
found that the prop would turn free of the engine.  He tore the
gearbox down and found that all the 2nd gear teeth were stripped
from the shaft.  If I made any mistakes here George, please
correct me.

Also, did anyone ever learn what caused the failure in Andy
Venable's engine?  Do we have anyway of finding out?

Ken Powell

No word from anybody on Andy's engine yet. We may never know because
who ever took it apart may have missed the cause. Ed Anderson
and I talked about it last Tuesday  and Ed's theory, as I recall was, Andy 
was using AN line from the oil pump to the oil pick up screen in the bottom
of the separate oil sump tank made necessary by the plugs up configuration.
Ed's theory, as I recall is, this line developed and air leak losing 
oil pump prime and oil feed and hence oil pressure. The stock line is
of course steel tubing and short. 

Here is a picture I took of Ed's fine new oil sump made by Ed Heishman.
Note the metal oil pick up line on the left.

Paul Lamar
 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            http://www.linux.org