Rear Alternator Condensor

[bking]

Jeff, thanks for your comment and could you share why you disconnected the rear condenser?

Thank you,

Bill King

[JAG]

Hi Bill,
Sorry - I should have mentioned why I disconnected it. I thought I had an output issue from the alternator, and in my troubleshooting, I disconnected it. It turns out, that was not my problem, but after sending out the alternator (no fault found), and then subsequently swapping it with the front one (not a fun troubleshooting exercise!), there was nothing wrong with that alternator or the system. It turns out, the one alternator just needs more RPM than the other to start producing output.

Long story, I know. I have not hooked the condenser back up yet, but have noticed no problems (noise) in the system not having it either.

Jeff

[mshac]

Just know that a condenser and a capacitor are one in the same. They act as a small "reservoir" of current, catching small spikes, and smoothing temporary low voltage situations. If you've ever had an RV, think of it as the rubber bladder that stores a bit of water pressure before the pump has to kick in. Unless there is electrical noise or interference with your radios, I would not be overly concerned about it.

[bking]

My apologies for not replying to you both sooner but was waiting to hear back from the Cessna/Textron piston support group. They were very helpful and took the time to pull the original electrical drawings that went back to the 336 days. The drawings did show a condenser connected to the rear alternator but the engineers could not explain why and suggest that if I had any radio noise that might be a fix.

I think i'll take mshac's advice and not worry about it.

Thank you,

Bill King

[SkyMac]

I removed my rear condenser a couple of years back, no noticeable effect.

Dave

[wslade2]

As I understand it, condensers (noise filters) were necessary with the OLD radios. The newer audio gear more sophisticated with protection built in. Ergo, if you have even a 20-30 yr old panel, won’t notice it’s absence.

[bking]

This afternoon was my first flight since completing this years annual. As I advanced the throttles to takeoff power, there was a noise in my headset that has never occurred before. At first, I thought the batteries went out in my Bose noise canceling headset but once the throttles were pulled back to 25” it stopped. I did a ground check before shutdown and the same thing occurred.

During the annual, my A&P replaced the rear starter and had both rear mags overhauled this year. Also, we replaced the alt out warning circuit board and the front alternator noise filter.

I haven’t talked to him on this but came here first for ideas since thats the first thing he ask when we have seemingly Skymaster related issues.

Has anyone had a similar problem or any idea where to start diagnosing the problem?