Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Manifold Pressure Gauge...FIXED!

I headed up to New Garden this morning to have the shop give another look at my manifold p[ressure gauge. It absolutely stopped, frozen on lucky 13. 
The flight north was smooth and pretty quiet. I road along with Dover approach and then Philly before canceling flight following. I made a nice landing and taxied to the shop.

I wanted this addressed at annual and ideed the shop found a crack in the line coming off the manifold. The line was replaced, all the remaining line checked and they even removed some blue gunk at the manifold AN fitting. 
The plan was to disconnect the gauge, make a short line extension to then be hooked up to a known working gauge for a test. The gauge worked perfectly. My gauge was removed and the ninety degree AN fitting was removed, the only part of the system that was not checked. Somehow it clogged solid, it really looks like some piece of metal was stuck in there. The most bizzare thing I've seen, airplanes, go figure. With a new ninety put on my gauge it immediately registered the approximate barro setting, a good sign. The gauge was reinstalled and sure enough it worked like a charm.  
Cody was upside down and under the panel getting all this squared away. Oh to be young and able to once again do that work and still climb out. I would have needed fire rescue to get me out. 

With another run up complete I headed out to lunch and Cody buttoned things up. Charles G picked me up and we headed to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza for some very good eats. We each had the two meatballs with sauce and ricotta  and focaccia bread on the side. 

The temps were now getting hot and the humidity was climbing too. I could hardly wait to get the fan turning. I launched for home with a perfectly active MP gauge! 
The ride south was bumpy at times and there was a good bit of traffic on with Dover. It seems all of Del State planes were in the air today. I finished up with a nice landing on runway one-four and tucked 3 Tango Charlie in the hangar.  I'll post some pics when the AN fitting is cut open and the block is revealed. 

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