Rotax 912 Breakdown !!

[Brian]

Well, as some of you out there already know, I recently [couple of hundred hours ago] joined the "21 st century"

[birdy]

Only time one of mine was reluctant to start ( it did after more crankn off the Tojo battery) was ona freeze mor,n( not that I was complain,n).Once it got go,n, it went all day without a hitch.Decided to change the plugs wen I got home.Turned out theyed been in there for( from memory) 900 hours.How time flies wen your haven fun.Never Hada issue with the CID units.

[chook]

Brian I have heard of one going but not both simultaneously.I would be checking my wiring VERY carefully so as not to blow the 2 new ones.Get Floods to return your faulty ones to you. I have had a "crack" at removing the epoxy coating from a faulty one over here with a thermal lance without much success - the dings really know how to keep their technology protected.One of the faults which was known was the kill wires for some reason were breaking at the entry to the epoxy (vibration?) which gave the symptom of not being able to switch the thing off. Check your wiring entries into the epoxy of the faulty ones.One day if I get some spare time I may get you to send em over. I"m a sucker for this stuff.Regards........Chook.

[bones]

I have had 1 go on 1 machine, and it took 2 trips to floods to find it, it was intermittant and when they rang me back and said nothing wrong the second time, i said in no uncertain terms, it is the black box make it fail(cause i had swapped out the box with another one i had) and sure enough they got it to fail eventually.I know of a bloke here who thought the black boxes were failing, ordered 2 new ones, put them on and the problem still persisted, turned out to be the spark plug end caps on 2 wires were not connecting propperly

[Brian]

Thanks for all the replies & suggestions.Yes, Floods have returned the old ones so I will check them carefully for any cracking. [ turning them off wasnt a problem though ]I will give the wiring a closer look & enlist the help of a good known " checker"

[Tim]

G"day Brian,Given that they are supposed to be totally independent ignition systems, the chances of them both failing at exactly the same time after 1200 hours would be zillions to one, unless some other external influence came into play. There is something fishy that has happened. I"d certainly be thoroughly checking the ignition wiring and switch/s. It would be a shame to blow $1600 worth of new black, er, gold boxes.

[WEST OZ FLYER]

Hello Chopper, a mate of mine over here had his two black boxes go at the same time earlier this year. Same symptoms, crank for a while and it may fire or may splutter. First time we replaced the rotax ignition key with two switches for the magnetos and a master key. By the time we had done that fired straight up. Thought we had solved the problem. Few hours later same thing only splutters. Left it for a while and tried again. This time it started up with a huge cloud of black smoke, flooded we thought, all though he never changed his starting procedures. It was fine for a few more hours until it just wouldn"t start no matter what. Seems that it is not all that uncommon for a particular series of black boxes. Apparently they don"t like heat. His plane only has about 400hrs on it with a 80hp Rotax. Yep they haven"t got any cheaper yet, $800 each is a big chunk out of the wallet.

[Brian]

G"day Brian,Given that they are supposed to be totally independent ignition systems, the chances of them both failing at exactly the same time after 1200 hours would be zillions to one, unless some other external influence came into play. There is something fishy that has happened. I"d certainly be thoroughly checking the ignition wiring and switch/s. It would be a shame to blow $1600 worth of new black, er, gold boxes.Hi Tim, you have made my day just hearing from you, Mica Street or for that matter, Broken Hill just aint the same without you & Liz !! Getting a bit sick of things, just seem to be working & working & very little fun, been lookinng forward to getting up to Wondai & a couple of weeks off & nothing seems to be going quite right & now this little problem & not a cheap one plus there"s no easy solution to knowing that when the new boxes are hooked up, is it going to be right ? even after getting checked out which is no small job either! Not sure if Rosco is around or if this is up his alley either, he usually goes on holidays about this time of the year.......send the engine down to Flood"s ?

[Brian]

Hello Chopper, a mate of mine over here had his two black boxes go at the same time earlier this year. Same symptoms, crank for a while and it may fire or may splutter. First time we replaced the rotax ignition key with two switches for the magnetos and a master key. By the time we had done that fired straight up. Thought we had solved the problem. Few hours later same thing only splutters. Left it for a while and tried again. This time it started up with a huge cloud of black smoke, flooded we thought, all though he never changed his starting procedures. It was fine for a few more hours until it just wouldn"t start no matter what. Seems that it is not all that uncommon for a particular series of black boxes. Apparently they don"t like heat. His plane only has about 400hrs on it with a 80hp Rotax. Yep they haven"t got any cheaper yet, $800 each is a big chunk out of the wallet. Thats a bit more encouraging...I mean the fact that there was no other problem.....I may have the same boxes as your mate . You cant get a serial number or anything of any of those boxes that failed can you ?How many hours has he done since putting the new boxes in ??The boxes or the ones that failed are made by Ducati, fair guess is that rotax put their own connectors on & triple the price.I dont like the heat either

[Tim]

Rosco is home Brian. He is a full time LAME with the Flying Doctor now so you have to contact him late afternoons or weekends. He may have struck the problem before, given the number of 912"s he has out there and the number of hours they have on them.

[birdy]

Getting a bit sick of things, just seem to be working & working & very little fun, been lookinng forward to getting up to Wondai & a couple of weeks off & nothing seems to be going quite right & now this little problem & not a cheap Cheap as chips, compared to dry bore holes.Tryn to get a duplicat hole near one I sank 18 munths ago.The one I got was only 83" to the water.So far, this rotary thing has only found 270" of dry granit in one, and 120" of dry granit in the other, both within spitn distance of mine.And at $70 per foot, it"s getn boring, not to mention expensive.Ho well, maybe we,ll strike it on the 3rd go morrow Still recon these rotary rig bits are aquafobic. >Water is worth more n gold out ere, and it costs a gold mine to get it.

[bishoff7]

Just a thought on the early 80 horse 912 ignitions

[Echo]

Chopper ,
..........

[WEST OZ FLYER]

Chopper, I have a wedding to attend today. I will get the info if he still has it tomorrow.

[Brian]

Thanks Eric but I have the new boxes, that"s the easy part but thanks agian for the offer, might need a new engine yet but...only kidding, looks like a trip to BH to see Rosco, he has the gear plus the knowledge to play with this!Those rotary machines are a waste of time & good money Birdy, they find very little water compared with the old rigs !! Some say the rotarys drill too quickly & miss the streams.