This plane is new to me (1974 PA-28-151), so please forgive my newbie questions.
First thing, the alternator load meter went to zero after a couple hours of flying in cruise. Cycling the alternator portion of the master remedied the issue, but only temporarily. I read on here one guy's experience was that the same thing was happening, but with heavy load it didn't. So I cruised with fuel pump, all lights, and all the radios on (35 amps). It went fine for ~5 hours total and didn't trip once. Not a permanent solution but it helped me get the plane home.
The previous owner replaced the voltage regulator a couple months ago. They also bench tested the alternator at that time and he claims the mechanic said it looked OK. He thought that fixed the issue because it is fairly intermittent. Well, it didn't.
My thought is over-voltage relay. My mechanic here says to use a cigarette lighter voltage meter. Will that show it properly? My guess is the over-voltage relay will trip before there is any perceptible change in the voltage on one of those meters?
Another silly question ... my mechanic is pretty busy in the next couple weeks so I'm trying to get some stuff together to do some maintenance on the plane. How does one figure out what brake pad goes on this? It seems like there's a bunch of brake "liners", do I need to pull the brake pad and see what brand/model it is? Is there a standard one or does everyone have a preference or something different on their plane?
First thing, the alternator load meter went to zero after a couple hours of flying in cruise. Cycling the alternator portion of the master remedied the issue, but only temporarily. I read on here one guy's experience was that the same thing was happening, but with heavy load it didn't. So I cruised with fuel pump, all lights, and all the radios on (35 amps). It went fine for ~5 hours total and didn't trip once. Not a permanent solution but it helped me get the plane home.
The previous owner replaced the voltage regulator a couple months ago. They also bench tested the alternator at that time and he claims the mechanic said it looked OK. He thought that fixed the issue because it is fairly intermittent. Well, it didn't.
My thought is over-voltage relay. My mechanic here says to use a cigarette lighter voltage meter. Will that show it properly? My guess is the over-voltage relay will trip before there is any perceptible change in the voltage on one of those meters?
Another silly question ... my mechanic is pretty busy in the next couple weeks so I'm trying to get some stuff together to do some maintenance on the plane. How does one figure out what brake pad goes on this? It seems like there's a bunch of brake "liners", do I need to pull the brake pad and see what brand/model it is? Is there a standard one or does everyone have a preference or something different on their plane?
