Microlighters

strange thing happened to me. yesterday morning i started the engine, warmed up, did a mag check and every thing was ok, flew for an hour & a half un-eventfully.

Yesterday afternoon started the engine, warmed up, did a mag check and what do you know - one mag dead - completely! checked plug leads again, cheked plugs, checked all connections and everything seems fine!?

Diagnosis - Unknown - Please help me solve!

Slow_Poke wrote:...did a mag check and what do you know - one mag dead - completely!

Explain please Does it mean no rpm drop when you check it or does it mean you can't kill the engine once it's fired....or what?

Slow should you feel like killing some Duck let me know!! Seriously the resistance of the mags can be checked etc. etc. I do not have any info with me but maybe the Duck has his handy. I think you should verify whether it is the mag or the CDI.

my 2c

Hi Slow,

If youv'e got a Multimeter you can check the resistance of the mag coils (The green and white wires coming out of the engine). You just unplug the connector and measure across the contacts. They should be around 285ohm for older engines and around 310ohm for newer ones. If one is dodgy you've found your problem.....

This failure is quite common. At my flight school we had about 4 that failed over the last 4 years (one of them my own plane!)

aerosan, i'm in the mood for some kentucky fried duck! especially since i'm grounded!

Duck, on the the one mag switch produces no rpm drop, the other mag switch, when switched, kills the engine thus to my knowledge, the engine is only running on two spark plugs - the ones from the MAG DCI unit.

i did not check the resistance of the DCI units yet but have determined that the two plugs on the PTO DCI side is dead, does that indicate a possible problem with the following parts?
1. the dci unit itself?
2. a problem with the pickup?
3. a problem with one of the charging coils / lighting coils?

the problem is i'm quite far from any body to take it in quickly to have it checked so i have to attempt it on my own. Any sugestions?

Hi Slow,

Failure of the DCI unit is very rare. The spark plugs fire at both top and bottom dead centre (This means you can change the pick-ups around - you'll need a short piece of wire as the mag side pick-up won't reach to the PTO end). If the other mag now does not work you've found you're problem (pick-up). This is also rare but sometimes the wire out of the pick-up grounds on the casing.

Most frequently it is a short in the mag coils inside the engine which will show up as low resistance (my previous post).

Rotax 582

Had the same ploblem a month ago - first thought - NEW MAG $$$ , but after some inspection, I found the problem which was not visible at first.

I unpluged the charging cable and after inspecting it - no problem - when I put it together, one of the wires broke off and, yes there it was. The wire burnt off on the inside of the housing - have no explanation how it happened.

See pic below - who knows this, may be the problem.

Sorry, fried duck is not on the menu today It's not Christmas yet.

All the replies are valid thus far. Miskiet gave good advice. You should check it out as he suggests but.......by this time I would have checked the mag switch to see if its working. Remember the last thing you did before you had the problem?.....you switched the mags off. Is that switch not perhaps stuffed inside and perhaps still in the off position?

duck, only 29 more days to go before fired duck or is that now turkey? checked tghe switch, even replaced it with a new / spare one but still not the problem. how will i know if the charging wire i - as shown in above pic - is broken off / burnt off?

I'm strongly thinking of trailoring the trike down to solowings to have it checked - all the other places / people in GP sais they are to bussy / on holiday / cant find parts?!

At least I'll get to fly in KZN with the ballito gang - thats now if the problem is fixed!!

Slow_Poke wrote:duck, only 29 more days to go before fired duck or is that now turkey?

At least I'll get to fly in KZN with the ballito gang - thats now if the problem is fixed!!

Poking-Slowly,

Careful, - this Oom-Duck-Okie will quack you one-time!!

Make sure to look us up if you come down.

Very sorry to hear about you concerns!!

Regards
John ZU-CIB

PS: Nix wrong with the Ballito Gang – Great Guys !!

Seen 2 x 582's where a wire breaks in the field coils , one was due to vibration where the insulation eventually breaks (they could be made better), and the other from heat due to continous high current drain (flying with lights on).

siasd wrote:

I unpluged the charging cable and after inspecting it - no problem - when I put it together, one of the wires broke off and, yes there it was. The wire burnt off on the inside of the housing - have no explanation how it happened.

how will i know / how do i check that these wires have not broken / burnt off

John , will pm you for deatils a bit closer to the time. will definitaly make a plan to visit the cato ridge gang if possible.

I will be leaving kuruman on the 16th of dec until the 23rd of dec or until my engine is sorted - hopefully quickly so that i can explore kzn a bit - in my own "fliegietygie"

I'll be hangering at ballito airfield and spending a few nights with Paul (zulu1) form "air magic" whom has promised me a tour of the north coast.

Check resistance between the two charging coil wires - should be 1-5ohm. Any higher and you've got a break......

Igot a complete coil kit from aviation engines this morning, as well as a mag puller from leprechaun - no the fun starts! taking the engine off and replacing it! any tips or sugestions? its a rotax 582 aquilla.

Thanks for ALL the valuable input, it has been noted and applied.

After two weeks of waiting, contemplating, and eventually fixing it on my own (Thanks Leprecaun for the DVSD and Mag Puller) - i'm airborn again!!