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Hi Herb,
I replaced both my prop governors about 2 or 3 years ago. My old ones were original and seemed to work fine and had been overhauled in 1988 when the factory remans were installed. My mechanic decided that 20 years was long enough to not have any service.
Well, I found out at that time that overhaul was not an option due to inability to get parts. The same opinion was echoed by two shops so I bit the bullet and purchased two brand new governors from McCauley at $2500 per governor (yes, $5000 bucks). My new governors did not support the prop sync system so that was removed from the airplane at that time. I never liked that system anyway and have not missed it at all. The governors that support the prop sync were an option but at an even higher cost. That system wasn't worth one penny to me so that part of the decision was easy. The new governors still look brand new and have about 250 hours on them now and work fine.
If I recall correctly, the old governors, according to my mechanic, had on occasion malfunctioned in a way that overloaded the hub with extremely high oil pressure and caused the hub to fail. This never happened to me but apparently it has happened somewhere according to him.
Anyway, I'm not one to argue and frankly I find it difficult to justify to keep 20+ year old parts as important as the prop governors in service if my mechanic says its time. So, the old ones are sitting in my closet downstairs and my hourly cost went up $50/hour for my 100 hours that year. So be it.
Good luck!
Ed
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