OT-Alternator failure and Firewall, Grumman Tiger

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:54 pm

Check these pics out of an alternator failure we came across today on a transient Grumman Tiger. The guy is from Santa Fe, NM, and on his last leg of the day today, he noticed a "squealing" of the alternator belt, but did NOT taxi back. When he landed here, he had us look at it. Pat (our Service Manager with 36 years of experience) had NEVER seen anything this bad...

Then ENTIRE back side of the housing had failed and was rubbing on the coils! LUCKY GUY!!! We also found melted wires in the electrical system due to the malfunctioning alternator up front...

Also of interest to me was the firewall...

I've never seen a firewall covered in rust. Some sort of repair was done here to the top portion, and why they did not use SS or Galvanized is beyond me...

Interesting.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:28 am

WOW!

That alternator pic is a RIOT!

Did you get a close up on the wire penetration in the firewall?

That looks pretty elegant too!

CJ

JohnR · Post by **JohnR** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:56 am

Whoa! I would think you might notice a little more than a "squealing" of the belt.

CJ, you don't need to worry about the wiring, it is a certified plane so we know everything is done the best way possible.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:42 am

I can see that!

The putty looks like Dux Seal!

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:05 pm

More pics of the alternator that pretty much blew apart...

Here's the melted wires in the regulator...