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Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:04:51 -0400
From: Chad Robinson <crobinson@medialantern.com>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Fwd: Flex plate cracks
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On 8/5/2011 9:08 PM, Charlie England wrote:
> I was moving stuff around in the hangar today&  picked up my salvage 
> yard flex
> plate. Found two 3/4" cracks: down from 9 o'clock&  up from 3 o'clock 
> holes in
> the pic. Plate has never flown AFAIK.
The timing of this whole conversation is eerie. Literally 24 hours 
before it was first posted I had finally installed my starter and turned 
my engine over for the first time. When I did, I noticed visible runout 
in my flex plate ring gear (the whole plate had runout - I just noticed 
it because I was making sure my starter alignment was good).

I initially contacted Tracy to see if it was acceptable, but the number 
he pulled from thin air for what might be acceptable was a small 
fraction of what I had - mine was like 3/16". It was very noticeable.

SO, when the whole hoopla erupted on the list that sealed it for me and 
I decided to tear it out and put a new one in. I lucked across an eBay 
seller with THREE flex plates, and at only $40 each I just said "f--- 
it" and bought them all. I'm glad I did. One of the three had runout of 
its own - not as much as my first plate, but definitely not a choice 
part. I ended up installing the best of the three.

Close examination of these three seems to suggest that some stress 
during use caused the warp (heat?). They don't appear to be 
manufacturing tolerances. I understand Lynn's point about that and don't 
disagree, it's just that all of mine have visible indications of wear 
and tear to varying degrees. If somebody had a transmission seize or 
hydro-locked their engine, this part is right in the chain to take some 
abuse there... It might be worth establishing some guidelines for what's 
acceptable in this part.

Regards,
Chad