cessna 310 R

[Colonel]

BPF: you know far too much about Continental starters

Lycomings have Bendix starters. One little gear directly driven by the starter engages a big ring gear bolted to the crankshaft. Pretty fool proof. The only thing that usually goes wrong is the little gear doesn’t fly out to catch the ring gear when you engage the starter. A squirt of LPS and you probably be good to go.

Lycoming: I like to use electrical contact cleaner with a long red straw on the Bendix drive to clean it. Oil will
attract dirt and will gum it up.

Note that when a Lycoming kicks back, you can shave/lose teeth on the ring gear. Take a look, sometime.
The nice thing is that you can externally replace the starter and ring gear, with about the same effort as
changing the alternator belt, which is a lot, but you don't trash the engine.

I have tried every starter for a Lycoming, and my personal preference is B&C. They last about 1000 hours
with me driving, which isn't bad. Prestolite is a 19th century boat anchor, and SkyTec is junk. I have one.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I was part owner in a C 180 on floats. I got an expensive education on Continental starter adapters when the other partners neglected to tell me the engine was getting hard to start, until one day it would not start at all, fortunately at our home base dock.

Very fortunately we were able to fish out all the broken spring bits and be convinced that there was nothing left in the engine. $ 3800 dollars later we had a new starter adapter as the old one was so badly damaged it could not be repaired.

I know of one guy who had a C 182 with the same issue. He decided he would hand bomb it and fly it home to get fixed. Fortunately home wasn’t too far away as his engine was making “unusual” noises when he landed. Nothing $ 30,000 wouldn’t fix though…..

Colonel, I get what you are saying re electrical cleaner but personally I have had good results with LPS 1. But if you are stuck WD 40, or any other similar product will do the trick and get you home.

[Colonel]

One thing I should mention ... just like some people say not to run low-friction oils in motorcycles
with wet clutches (additives make them slip) ... some people don't like to run expensive oil in
Continentals because they say it will make the starter slip.

I've personally never seen that problem. I suspect anyone that has a slipping Continental starter
has problems other than their oil additives.

[Liquid_Charlie]

First, like all "old timers" with round engine background I/we always started the right engine first. Light twins POH suggest left engine because the battery is closer and shorter leads, so I was told. I would much rather hear the engine.

I have many hours in 3 and 4 hundred series Cessna aircraft and starting was never a problem or that tricky. Cold or hot I would always burp the high pumps, cold engine a little more in rich and then go back to idle cutoff and crank until it fired. Rich, use pumps as necessary to get the engine running on it's own, throttles at idle, nothing worse than runaway RPM after engine catches, especially in a Lycoming.

To each his own and whatever works for you. The POH gives you the basics but not the finesse.

[Colonel]

LC: The 24V battery on the 421's I flew, was always on the left wing root. I serviced them many times,
with a #2 Philips screwdriver and those countersunk screws. #10's if memory serves.

I always started the left engine first.



I had no idea that Matt Groening got his start doing technical illustrations.

PS I have a very funny story about a 421 annual and screws. You'd think it was a pretty boring topic, but ...

PPS It's weird. I have spent most of my life flying airplanes, but somehow, I always ended up spending
more time spinning wrenches than flying.

PPPS More weirdness. I always did my best to try to avoid multi-engine flying. In addition to those ops
being a monstrous bore - the flying sucked, and you spent all your time waiting around weird airports -
everyone else was always desperate to fly twins - it was almost a sexual frenzy with them - and I didn't
want to get between their penis and an airplane. Moment of Irony: most of them didn't have a fucking
clue what they were doing in a twin. Like this guy:



I'm sure he's left seat at Scare Canada now.

Somehow, I ended up here:



which suits me fine.

[Liquid_Charlie]

It was late -- post corrected and it was late -- haha == damn covid brain. Now I have corrected the typo - yes I always started starboard engine first and port engine better - I never liked or used cleft/right and preferred #1 #2 and even #3 and # depending on a/c

Hope I'm making sense now

[Colonel]

Reminds me of an ATC from NAS Meridian, MS would frequently confused east and west.

Not making this up. And lest you think I have my judgy pants on, I am guilty of the same.

PS Meridian was fun. There was this crazy guy with wild eyes - never a good sign in aviation -
called "Rich the Pyro Guy" or something like that, who used far too many bags of gasoline strung
out on the ground, when the WWII Bomber did his pass down the runway, before our slot time.



I'm just trying to get into the goddamned Pitts, and I feel the ground "thump" under my feet and
this wave of heat on my ass from the explosions behind me, hoping that the heat doesn't shrink
the fabric.

You will notice that Dear Old Dad was already in TPS and didn't give a shit. Even if TC thinks he
was a really shitty pilot, he was a nuclear weapons test pilot on the F-104 and a bright flash
was no big deal, I guess.

It's a great life if you don't weaken.

[Big Pistons Forever]

It was late -- post corrected and it was late -- haha == damn covid brain. Now I have corrected the typo - yes I always started starboard engine first and port engine better - I never liked or used cleft/right and preferred #1 #2 and even #3 and # depending on a/c

Hope I'm making sense now

For those who are unfamiliar with larger aircraft the engines are numbered from left to right with engine No 1 being the one outboard on the left wing.

For piston twins I usually start the left engine first. Single pilot I can see it is clear of personnel. Hopefully anybody on the right side will get the message to Fuck Off when they hear the left engine start.

For Piper Navajo’s I alternated left and right starts to do the hydraulic pump check.

On the 337 I always started the back engine first.

Large airplanes have systems considerations that will dictate start order.

On the Convair you always start the right engine first as the GTC is on that side.

DC 6 it was either # 2 or # 3 as those engines had the hydraulic pumps and you wanted to get pressure to reset the brakes before unleashing any more throbbing power . If you are were a considerate Captain with a new FO you would let him do # 2 as the first start. It was the easiest as you could hear the engine catch.

On the Electra we usually started # 1 due to where the huffer plugged in and then #4 to get ships power energized at low idle so you could disconnect the huffer