Governor Leakage

[Dave Biernacki]

After several attempts replacing the gasket and retightened the nuts on a prop governor for an oil leak I I finally located the source. I looked through the Comanche Tips and can't believe this subject hasn't been covered. Any way, my Twin Comanche has a leak in a prop governor at the lead plugged hole at the top of the doghouse shaped flange. I spoke to someone here at the (now base) airport Poplar Grove. One piece of advice was to dig out the lead and press a ball bearing into the hole.

Another said to just take a 1/4 in dia or slightly smaller flat faced punch and a small ballpeen hammer and whack it lightly to get the lead to seat. I was told it probaly won't go in any more than a 1/16 inch. I did the latter just now and it didn't move but 1/64. Now there is that space between the face of the flange and the punched spot. I was thinking I could fill that with epoxy or maybe more lead and fill it to the surface. Any ideas?

For a minimum of $500... The other option is to send the governor to Tiffin Air (Aviation). They disassemble the flange from the rest of the governor and permanently plug the hole from the inside. Their thinking is that the pressure comes from the governor side out. So if they seal it from the inside, no oil will ever come out. I would consider disassembling the unit myself as Tiffin would. Has anybody done, heard, have a different repair for this leak?
Dave

[Cliff.Wilewski]

Hi Dave,
We have seen this before. We have also seen where someone has maybe "dropped" a governor and it is "dinged" really close to the edge of the oil galley and leaks. Tiffin Air is good and also H&S Propeller in Michigan. I would give H&S a call and ask them about it. http://www.hspropeller.com/ They're a smaller family owned shop. Ask for Bryan the owner. He can tell you what to do about the plug.

Cliff Wilewski
Heritage Aero, Inc.

[AlanBreen]

We had a problem getting one of the governors on our PA30 to seal properly. The solution was to use the gasket without the gauze mesh. This might be worth a try.

[Dave Biernacki]

Thanks guys. I used a punch and back filled with JB weld and used compressed air to check for any leakage.