PA30 Alternators

[Jeff]

I purchased my Turbo Twinky a few years ago and it had been upgraded with Kelly Aerospace Alternators in 1999. I recently had the aircraft in the shop and was informed only 1 alternator was putting out. The alternators had been overhauled in 2008 during engine OH. A new alternator was swapped last week with the inop one and it does not work either. The shop believes it is a wiring problem but we cannot seem to locate a wiring diagram. The wiring was tested from the alternator switch to the field connection and the voltage shoould read the battery voltage with the switch on however it does not. I have not been able to locate the STC in all of my paperwork although a mechanic made a logbook entry in 1999 indicating the generators were removed and replaced with alternators. Has there been more than 1 STC in recent years for these conversions? After reading posts from previous members I am wondering if it might be time to upgrade both alternators to something better such as Plane Power Alternators for reliability and weight savings? Any insight would be appreciated. Jeff

[Kristin Winter]

I installed the Plane Power system recently. I am very pleased with it. I gained about 20 lbs of useful load and replaced it with a simple system that provided alternator warning lights

[Jim Menconi]

I know that this is old but thought if anyone is interested, I did the same as Kristin. I unfortunately bought the Kelly alternators from a mechanic at my field and was sold an incomplete STC. I managed to get the STC from Kelly, who I might add was very helpful, but the regulators were the wrong ones for the STC. I eventually bought the right ones through Aircraft Spruce which took nearly a year to get as Kelly had to make them up specially for their alternator according to their STC. Very frustrating! Here I am after all that, I decided to go and buy the complete kit (which I should have done originally) from Plane power and as a result, they are installed and working great. I have a pair of Kelly alternators with the correct regulators and other accessories for sale if anyone is interested. I also have a perfectly good pair of generators and regulators for sale.
Jim

[Timothy Poole]

If your plane is upgraded to alternators, the Plane Power troubleshooting flowchart is an excellent resource. Even if you don't have their system installed it should serve as a baseline starting point and save you quite a bit of time.

http://www.plane-power.com/images/troub ... ternal.pdf

We just finished this upgrade on our PA-30 and love it.

Tim