Rear Alternator Condensor

[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?