King Cat help
07-11-2019, 01:03 AM
#102
After taking about a week off from working on the KC, I'm back at it, I hope I can make some progress with this refurbish, it was going all good in the begining but then, I been finding a few things that are in need of fixing ( temp prob, retract valve, rudder servo working erratically and so on )
I now have one of the new jetronics valves with fail safe build in for the gear, I'll give that a chance to change my mind about these valves, I also have a new temp prob, that fortunally and unfortunately I won't be using, last night I swapped the probs and got the same error massage ( --E-- ) then now I knew that the cable and prob are good soooo, I swapped the probs again, then I started pushing and pulling around the comm Jack on the the turbine, next thing I know I was getting temp info on the GSU, I finally figure out that the cable is loose on the turbine's comm Jack, well, that problem, mystery is solved, the fix it's easy, I will be able to run the engine by Friday
Last edited by CARS II; 07-11-2019 at 01:07 AM.
07-11-2019, 05:01 AM
#104
My Feedback: (4)
After taking about a week off from working on the KC, I'm back at it, I hope I can make some progress with this refurbish, it was going all good in the begining but then, I been finding a few things that are in need of fixing ( temp prob, retract valve, rudder servo working erratically and so on )
I now have one of the new jetronics valves with fail safe build in for the gear, I'll give that a chance to change my mind about these valves, I also have a new temp prob, that fortunally and unfortunately I won't be using, last night I swapped the probs and got the same error massage ( --E-- ) then now I knew that the cable and prob are good soooo, I swapped the probs again, then I started pushing and pulling around the comm Jack on the the turbine, next thing I know I was getting temp info on the GSU, I finally figure out that the cable is loose on the turbine's comm Jack, well, that problem, mystery is solved, the fix it's easy, I will be able to run the engine by Friday
Your retract valve may not be bad. Just went through this issue with the one I did.
So I have it at my house and the damn thing holds air for two days straight, give it back to the owner and it leaks like crazy. So we test it at the field it holds air...we fly, no gear, get it down valve is leaking. I take it home and replace it with another BVM valve. It leaks at first but then it is holding air, then it is leaking again. So I change out the fill valves thinking I have a leak there and the leak stops. Give it back to my friend he takes it home and it starts leaking again. So we call BVM and ask one of the techs about a leaky retract valve...immediately he responds.."Is this on a kingcat?" Long story short it's a common problem with kingcats. Its not the valve its one of the gear. You fill up the air tank and the air goes to the gear....if an O-Ring in the gear is bad it will let air pass and the air has to go somewhere so it escapes back out through the valve. Hence you think your valve is bad. it was one of his mains...he replaced that main with a spare he had and no more leaks. You can put oil in the retract and see if that helps, but he did say that if it sat for along time and the o-ring drys out replacement is usually the best policy (o-ring replacment that is). Text me if you have questions.
Patrick
Last edited by sirrom; 07-11-2019 at 06:11 AM.
07-11-2019, 02:07 PM
#105
Thanks Patrick.
Been ahead of it, I've added Teflon oil, #25 to the retracts to lube the O rings, I do this on all my retracts new and specially old ones.
At the moment I don't see any air leaks, it holds the air up and down just fine, I will get back to that after I run the engine.
Been ahead of it, I've added Teflon oil, #25 to the retracts to lube the O rings, I do this on all my retracts new and specially old ones.
At the moment I don't see any air leaks, it holds the air up and down just fine, I will get back to that after I run the engine.
07-11-2019, 06:15 PM
#107
Yes Pat, an old one that doesn't bring the gear all the way up, down is fine, the system holds air for ever so, no air leaks has been detected, I got me one of the new ones that I will install soon, we will see.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-11-2019 at 06:17 PM.
07-11-2019, 06:32 PM
#108
Did some work today with good results, not knowing Spektrum has delayed my progress but, we are moving forward.
I've fixed the loose comm cable, added a bit of mid CA to the cable plug, just enough to make it fit tight in the comm jack on the turbine, nice and clean job, I now have temp readout from the prob ( the old one ) with that, I needed to prime, both fuel lines, the
main fuel line was not a problem, to prime the plug line I connected the propane selenoid to the fuel selenoid spot on the ECU and primed the fuel selenoid but I was priming the plug line, with all that done, I also found a fuel leak coming from the festo Y, I will get a new one soon but for the moment some mid CA did the trick, just enough to run the engine.
The engine finally started, some flames.... watch the vid, it explains it better.
I also tried the smoke pump, no go on that one, the Y that I probably made some 15 years ago has a broken spot some where ( I will fix that soon ) I end up using my second LIPO, the pump runs.... watch the video.
All in all a good day, I finaly got the engine running as well as the smoke pump, found a bad fuel leak and a broke Y that feeds the ECU and smoke pump, GREAT!!!! more stuff to fix
Forgot, I also change the fuel lines inside the turbine, they have been in there over a decade and some time ago I also change the starter O ring, I suspected it was 1/2 way gone and dry.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-11-2019 at 07:05 PM.
07-12-2019, 11:25 PM
#109
Well, things a going back in where they were, the next thing to do is radio check, servo checks ( already found one that is no good ) set up and then some
A lot of small things that needed fixing to get the engine, and pump runing but, they are now, I re-solder the batt Y and it's works fine now, swap the old Jetronics dual valve for a new one with fail safe, moving forward.
Programing will have to wait till a couple of weeks, I'll be in LA and going to Disneyland on my next days off so, no work on the jet for a week a half.
I still have to check the fit of all the parts, I know already the the small tube spar fits tight on the right wing and have done some sanding to get it loose, so far it's working.
CG should be right on the spot, with the new playwood tray the nose is light.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-12-2019 at 11:41 PM.
07-24-2019, 09:06 PM
#110
Back at home working on the KC, I decided to recall it the PITAKC, because all the bugs it had and still has, working on this Cat is the only thing I can do at the moment anyways, the temps are so high that I have to stay indoors for this weekend, then next week I'm going in for eye surgery ( lens replacement, one at the time ) can't fly jets at the moment but I can keep working on them for now, after I'm done on both eyes, I will be out there burning Kero and flying my jets at 199.99 mph 
Last edited by CARS II; 07-24-2019 at 09:09 PM.
07-24-2019, 09:14 PM
#111
I'm installing a new Jetronics dual valve for the gear, I had it in the airplane already, but it was doing the same thing as the old style one ( not bringing the gear all the way up ) I pulled it out, reprogrammed it, and now it is working fine by bringing the main up and locked, now I have to hook up the nose gear, if all works good, then it is going back in, the last thing I got to do is to program the failsafe.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-24-2019 at 09:44 PM.
07-24-2019, 09:36 PM
#112
Well, looks like I found the source of the gear problems, a bloked T fitting, earlier when I was troubleshooting the problem I noticed that there was pressure on the down lines when the gear was going up, there shouldn't have been any air in that line, I suspected the air was not exiting the lines, the plugged T was the reason.
One less bug to chase, moving forward.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-25-2019 at 12:25 PM.
07-25-2019, 12:31 PM
#113
When I hit a wall about a step or procedure, I resource to the experienced guys around the world that participate on RCU, Dave W. from the UK is one of them, once more he has come to my help explaining the fail safe on the Jetronics dual valve, now I can say the retracts valve is all done and will keep working on the next step.
Once again, Thanks Dave.
Once again, Thanks Dave.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-25-2019 at 12:36 PM.
07-26-2019, 08:29 PM
#116
Ok, after suffering through the bugs on the engine and retracts I am now working on the control surfaces, swapping the servo arms from the Dubro ones to the original JR ( thank you Tom V. from Lodi, CA for your generous donation ) since these were the original arms the KC was setup with, I decided to go with them, if I had used metal arms I would have to change the pushroads and that would have created more work, with the original arms it was mostly a simple swap of arms.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-26-2019 at 08:40 PM.
07-27-2019, 10:42 PM
#120
I just spend nearly two hours watching a 4 vids series uploaded on YT by Dustin B. I have learn so much about programming a KC with these 4 vids, he picked a KC as the programming aircraft, perfect for me since that is what I'm doing.
I am now so ready to complete the programming on the KC, but it will have to wait till Thursday, my next free day then, it's eye surgery on Friday then, I'll be out for at least 3 days or so.
Here is the first vid.
I am now so ready to complete the programming on the KC, but it will have to wait till Thursday, my next free day then, it's eye surgery on Friday then, I'll be out for at least 3 days or so.
Here is the first vid.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-27-2019 at 10:46 PM.
07-31-2019, 04:02 PM
#123
Programming the flaps is going very easy, I am liking this radio more and more, I still have to do some minor adjustments like, more flap travel for the TO and Landing.
I took a snap shot out of this vid, looks like this KC has the TO flaps travel down to the bottom of the booms.
I also got the link to the BVM page where they have all the travel measurements for all of their models control surfaces, thanks to my friend Raffy.
CG & Throws
Last edited by CARS II; 07-31-2019 at 04:12 PM.
07-31-2019, 05:45 PM
#124
After trying different ways how to set up the flaps ( the vid I watched and the KC manual ) I decided to go with the manual, it takes more doing and if I need to readjust the landing flap position, I will have to readjust the landing flap position manually.
The manual tells you to have to servo arm parallel to the pushroad when the flap is fully deployed, this way when fully deployed there is minimal load on the servo ( tested it by pushing on the flap ) sounds reasonable to me.
Last edited by CARS II; 07-31-2019 at 05:48 PM.