1959 PA24-250 Side Air Vents

[George Clover]

Hello folks,

We just bought our Comanche about 1 year ago and have an issue with the 4 cabin air vents on the sides of the fuselage not working properly. The rear ones don’t open unless they are manually opened on the ground from the outside. The 2 front ones partially open or won’t stay in the position they are turned to in flight. Does anybody know of or have a repair or replacement solution? I would lean more toward a replacement option at this point if there would be one that would be a more user-friendly and lower drag option. I see there is an option on the Knots 2u website called the Arapaho Dorsal fin mod that claims to improve cabin airflow but don't know if that would be adequate to the flow created by the existing vents. It gets hot where we are so keeping airflow is a must. Hope to hear of some great ideas and appreciate your help!

George

[Pat Elliott]

The dorsal fin replacement is for the overhead vents, not the side vents. The side vent mechanism is fairly simple. I had two that wouldn't open easily as well from lack of use. I sprayed them thoroughly with LPS and worked them in and out a multiple times.

[George Clover]

[Michael Bryant]

The knobs typically have a small headless bolt that can tightened with a small flat head wrench. The bolt should be on the flat of the piece coming out of the sidewall.

The mechanism behind the sidewall has a metal clip that keeps the knob from moving. This was broken on 3 of my 4 side vents and a replacement is not available that I am aware of. We used a piece of rubber to create a fiction "lock" per advice either here or in the Tips.

Michael