Ram Air Cable, It's Just Baffling and Stripping Around the Windows

March 8-9
Ram Air is a feature that Mooney devised to add a wee bit of speed in cruise flight. It works by opening a small door in the cowling just below the spinner. This little door allows speeding air to rush in boosting the manifold pressure by about an inch, or ~10 hp. It is operated by a pull knob on the panel.  Pull the knob, the door comes open and a warning light comes on as ram air should only be used in clean air...as it is unfiltered. Our ram air cable was gunky and stuck so we went about fixing it. Buying a new one would have cost $483. Not an easy job. The short of it is, we extracted the cable, squirted carb cleaner in the cable, let it dissolve the crud, squirted heavy lube oil in, then reinserted the cable. It seems to work ok now, but we haven't attached the door yet, so the jury is still out.

After installing the new alternator and starter, Glenn was busy re-assembling the aluminum and rubber baffling components. It's quite a job and includes riveting and replacing special staples. He's really doing impressive work

I spent most of Saturday stripping the paint around the windows? Why? We will eventually get the plane painted and we're preparing to install the new plexiglass, so now we don't have to worry about the paint shop damaging the new plexi when removing the old paint. Sunday we spent a lot of time on the very persnickety ram air cable and I also cut a few more interior panel pieces.

New Sky-Tec starter and Plane-Power alternator--great value that lightens the gross weight of the plane.

The black material around the rim is to keep the moister out of the electronics.

Glenn's refurbish on the aluminum baffling. It's not complete in this photo, but is a great example of turning something old into something new again. I love his work and attention to detail on this sub-project. Also--note that lonely cable sticking out underneath the engine? That is the ram-air cable that is now nicely lubed, but our inexperience cost us hours of difficult work. As I always say--experience matters.

Closer to completion here. Notice the staples across the top that were replaced by hand. We're waiting on the new exhaust system to come in.