As some of you know, Mary and I attended Sun'N Fun without Baby Blue,
this year. The problem was a power loss and shuddering upon takeoff, at
about 500 - 700 feet. I made all the checks I could think of: fuel
flow/pressure, restrictions in the lines/filters, vents, ignition, prop,
etc. I presented the problem to several at Sun'N Fun and got several
good suggestions. Basically, we narrowed it down to a carb problem,
most suggesting that one of the slides may be stuck. Well, I went out
to the plane, today and checked the slides. No problems there, but,
being a bit anal, I popped the tops anyway and checked them both out.
They both looked like new, with no dirt of any kind. A bit disappointed
that I hadn't found anything obvious, I reassembled the carbs and
reattached everything. One of my last checks was to test the spring
pressure on the cables and there it was. The port carb was fine, but
the the starboard spring was completely loose when the arm was pushed
fully forward. Confident that I'd actually found the problem, I
shortened the spring and cowled her up. Subsequent test flight verified
the fix. Baby Blue has never run so smoothly! A new set of springs
will be on order tomorrow.
For those who run into a rough running engine, I highly recommend that
you add checking the springs to your diagnostic toolbox.
Jeff - Baby Blue
Happily flying again...
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