[hharney]

After having the original engine control cable on the rear throttle freeze up, while on the ramp, I decided it was time to replace these 43 year old parts. Larry and I had a great time removing the engine control cables, under the supervision of Griswold Aviation. I was installing a JPI engine analyzer that required access to run 14 lines to each engine. With the floor open to achieve access to the rear engine I thought this would be a great time to replace the engine control cables. After removing the rear 3 control cables from the engine and the quadrant Larry suggested that I replace the front also. Because we already had the quadrant all apart and open it made sense to do the front. Larry had a really good idea especially because I was buying the cables :-)

So now I had to decide where to purchase these cables. I was told that Mcfarlane was the best place to buy them. OK, send in the old cables and have them make new ones based on the old cables. Well, maybe not that easy. The vendor called and said that the old cables were not really made correctly. Now I know that these are the original cables for this airplane. I have owned it for 35 years and it only had 300 hours on it when we purchased it. So according to Mcfarlane I have been flying for 35 years with control cables that were made incorrectly. Maybe that is why the rear throttle froze up on the ramp? During the conversation with Mcfarlane they indicated that the threaded rod attached to the cable was able to go beyond the mounting tube and that they could not send out cable that did this because they could hang up and stick. I agreed that I did not want the cable to hang up or any chance of that. Mcfarlane said that the original old cable I sent them had over 4 inches of movement and they wanted to check to see how much actual throw the levers had on the engine. I measured the distance from full on to full off and it was about 2.5 inches. That was great so they made the cable to accommodate this distance plus some for adjustment.

When the new cable arrived they looked great. I was really happy with the workmanship. Now came the pain staking chore to install. I tackled the front first, then Larry came up to help with the rear. Ok, cables in, and now waiting for Griswold to adjust and set the levers up. Well the front cables were all set up and good but the rear cables would not set up correctly. We checked and looked but there was not enough travel fore and aft to achieve proper adjustment. We tried everything; no good. Griswold called Mcfarlane and they said that they thought they know what happened and we needed to send the cables back. They would take care of the freight and turn them around very quickly. OH, MY ACHING BACK. I have to remove the new cables that I just installed and I had already installed most of the interior. I all had to come back out.

I told Griswold that he had better try and get some compensation out of Mcfarlane for their mistake. He tried but they don't pay for labor. In fact they said that they don't pay for expediting items, only ground transportation costs. Now it's really looking bleak. After learning that Mcfarlane had called Griswold twice today to ask questions it occurred to me that they really didn't know what had happened and I got really concerned about the cables they were retrofitting. I decided to call and talk to the shop at Mcfarlane and the tech told me that they do lots of 337's but wasn't sure if they all had engines in the rear or some had engines on the wings. After realizing he had no idea what kind of a plane I was working on I asked to talk to the owner.

Dave (owner) said that they could warranty any cable that were not certified and that they do the best they can without having the plane there to see or work with. I said that I had sent my old cables in so that they had an example but he said that someone must have put the wrong cables in my plane or that I was missing the lever extensions that are on the components sometimes. I tried to tell him the problem was the mount tube they made were too long and did not allow enough travel. I measured the old cables they sent back to the new ones. Simple, the mount tube was too long. He went on and on about how the original ones were wrong ( I only used them for 35 years) and that he couldn't do any better than that without seeing the airplane. They claim to have made lots of Skymaster cables and never had a problem.

After asking a few other questions about how they were going to correct it all of a sudden he said, GO BUY YOUR CABLES SOMEWHERE ELSE! I was in shock, I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to buy other cables I really wanted the ones they had built to be done right. Well long story short he hung up on me. Now, I'm a pretty easy going guy and I am still not sure what happened here but now I am having to go purchase the rear cables somewhere else. Fortunately I call Don Neiser at Commodore and he had them in stock. I should have just went there in the first place. But I was told that Mcfarlane has the best materials and good service. I won't be going back and Griswold is not happy with the whole situation.

I know that a few of you folks were contemplating cable changes this year so here is my advice; Call Don Neiser at Commodore Aero. Save yourself some trouble.