Fuel "Control monitor" or "Signal conditioner"

[edasmus]

Update on signal conditioner. At the end of last week my IA and myself checked every possible connection we could and all was well. My IA still felt the problem was in the signal conditioner. So I called Aero-Mach labs and told them of the problem still randomly occurring. They were very understanding and said they would be happy to take another look at my signal conditioner. So back it went for a second time to Wichita. I just spoke with the technician a few minutes ago and THANKFULLY, the first time he hooked the box to his machine, the box failed. YIPPEE! He has found loose capacitors and who knows what else (the technical talk is beyond me) but he feels these are certainly items that can cause the problems I have been having. He is continuing to work the problem until he is confident the signal conditioner is stable. He has found that the problem is affected by temperature as well as by vibration. Unfortunately the first time he had the box he did not do any temp or vibration checks. When we sent it back the second time, we specifically asked for these tests. As for the cost, my initial repair was $470. The worst case scenario is $702 if the box gets a complete overhaul. I'll keep you posted.

Ed Asmus

[Pete Somers]

Ed
Thats good news, however if you certify a part as serviceable the unit should have been checked in accordance with with the manufactures spec and clearly it was not.
It has cost you money to go through the wiring, plugs and to find out it is the box you first started out suspecting.

Not good.

Regards
Pete

[Ernie Martin]

Pete, in theory I'm with you. But how many repair facilities have a shaker table to simulate vibration? For that matter, how many subject a repaired item to temperature limits to verify specifications? The issue here is going to be money. If Aero-Mach recognizes that it had an obligation to verify conformance across the spectrum of environmental conditions and fixes the unit without additional cost, I think Ed would be doing well.

Ernie

[edasmus]

I hear what both of you are saying. I do struggle with this stuff all the time when it comes to maintenance bills. In a perfect world I would walk into the shop, tell of the problem, and they would fix it correctly the first time. Unfortunately it does not work that way all the time based on the experience I have had over 18+ years of airplane ownership and 7 years of Skymaster ownership. In the real world it becomes a process of elimination starting with the most likely cause and working from there. Inevitably something else gets broken in the process (which I just experienced with a fuel pump wire while trying to repair a leak in the pitot/static system). What I do look for in people is a good faith effort in trying to resolve the problem. Certainly I expect competence but not perfection. It becomes a balance between overall service and occasional frustrations, a balance between working with my home shop versus the time and expense of flying the plane around to different shops. My shop has been in the airplane business for 40+ years and my mechanic has been there since day one. They have been a Cessna repair station forever and I believe they have seen everything there is to see yet sometimes they still get fooled. I do pay for it, a lot, but looking at the big picture, they get most of it right. I wish I could do all this stuff myself but I can't, not even close. So as difficult as it can be, I have to put my faith and money in other people, encourage them to do their best, be a friend, not a jerk, and hope for the best. If I was truly dissatisfied, I would go somewhere else. As for Aero-Mach, they have been always polite on the phone and seem to be doing all they can to fix my signal conditioner. As for the cost, I will pay their bill knowing it was still less than getting a new one from Cessna and chalk it up as another chunk of money to owning an airplane. When the day comes that I don't want to pay anymore, I won't, and the airplane will be somewhere else. This forum is a great way to hopefully take a piece of that cost and put it back in our wallets (and use it for 100LL instead). It's all good!

[Ernie Martin]

Couldn't agree more. Great way to look at things.

Ernie

[stackj]

Absolutely a great attitude!

[Roger]

I too have had reoccuring problems with my left fuel guage, and noticed something a few weeks ago when working on a fuel leak caused by a dried cork . If I played with the wires that go between the outboard sensor, and the inboard, it caused the fuel guage to spike, and at times work. This even if I isolated (taped down) the connections that went through the tank caps.

I now beleive that I may have a crack in the wire itself. Why else when I move them around while isolating the connections, should I get what amounts to different impendence or continuity .