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Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

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Rick Moss

Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 96

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:28 pm Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

As per the title, I have grease escaping from (apparently) one of the blades on my Airmaster prop (warp drive blades). It's not excessive, but does make annoying marks on the windscreen on prolonged flights.



Has anyone got a solution for this, or does the prop need a New Zealand vacation?



Thanks,



Rick

ward.t(at)xtra.co.nz
Guest

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:46 pm Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Hi Rick,

Had that before. You need to revisit the installation of the blades and re install and re-tighten them again. Careful how much grease you have around the threads. Not too much.Tim



 Sent from my iPhone 



 	  Quote: 	
		   On 23/06/2016, at 8:28 AM, Rick Moss <Rkwmoss(at)gmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

 As per the title, I have grease escaping from (apparently) one of the blades on my Airmaster prop (warp drive blades). It's not excessive, but does make annoying marks on the windscreen on prolonged flights.

 

 Has anyone got a solution for this, or does the prop need a New Zealand vacation?

 

 Thanks,

 

 Rick

 

 

 

 

 Read this topic online here:

 

 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=457379#457379

Rick Moss

Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 96

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:24 pm Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Cheers Tim; they're fairly recently installed, having reinstalled them to try to fix this issue, and correctly torqued. I'll give it another try though!

Scudrunner

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Posts: 26

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:22 am Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Curiously, I was comparing two Airmaster prop installations at the weekend. My recently fitted prop has a bead of silicon visible between the blade and "cuff", it doesn't leak grease. The other, older installation didn't have the silicone and does leak grease. I was told that there is a mod from Airmaster to cover this.

SPURPURA

Joined: 04 Apr 2015
Posts: 68
Location: KAPV

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:12 am Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

My Airmaster slings also. Can you post a picture of the silicone seal.

_________________
N951EU - Tri-gear & 912ULS, N77EU- Mono & 914
I'D RATHER HAVE A BOTTLE IN FRONT OF ME THAN A FRONTAL LABOTAMY.

Rick Moss

Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 96

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:21 am Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Being a plumber, my first thought was also to silicone it up (actually, my first thought was to inhale through my teeth and advise a boiler replacement, but that was somewhat less useful). I thought that it seemed unlikely the silicone would stay in place with the g-forces involved, although a read through the Airmaster website does show a bulletin advising sealant is applied to an internal part of an earlier prop model, albeit to prevent water ingress as opposed to lubricant egress.

stranfaer(at)btinternet.c
Guest

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 5:52 am Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Rick you can look at mine if you want it has just been upgraded by air master 

Rgds

David 



Sent from my iPhone



 	  Quote: 	
		   On 23 Jun 2016, at 13:21, Rick Moss <Rkwmoss(at)gmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

 Being a plumber, my first thought was also to silicone it up (actually, my first thought was to inhale through my teeth and advise a boiler replacement, but that was somewhat less useful). I thought that it seemed unlikely the silicone would stay in place with the g-forces involved, although a read through the Airmaster website does show a bulletin advising sealant is applied to an internal part of an earlier prop model, albeit to prevent water ingress as opposed to lubricant egress.

 

 

 

 

 Read this topic online here:

 

 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=457385#457385

Scudrunner

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Posts: 26

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 7:15 am Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

I can't get out to the airfield until the weekend to photograph the silicone



I'm hoping that Brian will post soon, as it was he who explained the mod to me (if I try, I'll probably mis-quote).



And just to be clear, I know my prop is full of grease as I only recently did it's 1st 25 hour maintenance check. Perhaps flown only 6 hours since repacking the hubs with grease.



Howard

rehn(at)rockisland.com
Guest

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 7:21 am Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

Mine is some 13 years old and the grease packing is in large part to keep water out, at least in the "old" style. I also received a prop cover from Airmaster so that the upward blade would be further protected during a rain. All seems to work fine. I pack mine full of grease and it slings out a fair amount at first and then as excess blows out it it becomes very little. I deal with it, wipe it off, not a big deal. The silicone upgrade I did helped some but I still get some blow by. 

Good news, prop has performed with out issue all these years!

Jerry

Sent from my iPad

 	  Quote: 	
		   On Jun 23, 2016, at 6:35 AM, David private <stranfaer(at)btinternet.com> wrote:

 Rick you can look at mine if you want it has just been upgraded by air master 

 Rgds

 David 

 Sent from my iPhone

> On 23 Jun 2016, at 13:21, Rick Moss <Rkwmoss(at)gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> 

> 

> Being a plumber, my first thought was also to silicone it up (actually, my first thought was to inhale through my teeth and advise a boiler replacement, but that was somewhat less useful). I thought that it seemed unlikely the silicone would stay in place with the g-forces involved, although a read through the Airmaster website does show a bulletin advising sealant is applied to an internal part of an earlier prop model, albeit to prevent water ingress as opposed to lubricant egress.

> 

> 

> 

> 

> Read this topic online here:

> 

> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=457385#457385

brian.davies(at)clara.co.
Guest

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 8:26 am Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

You have flushed me out Howard!



I have had the problem for about two years and have learned to live with it.

When it first started I contacted Martin at Airmasters and he offered to

modify the prop if I sent it back to NZ.  As this involved expensive postage

costs and some downtime I looked at the two mods that seem to apply- one

being a ring of sealant around the blade retaining clamps external to the

hub ( Howard has this on his prop), and the other being SB 11 which was to

stop water ingress but it must also stop grease egress.  I tried the

external sealant mod and did not leave the sealant long enough before flying

and it flung it out.  The SB involves drilling into the base plate of the

blade and filling the cavity with sealant.  It seems fairly simple to do but

I have not got around to it.  During the last maintenance I replaced the O

ring seals under the retaining ring but that made no difference.



As Martin assured me it was not an indication of impending blade or hub

failure and may be caused by too much grease in the hub I relaxed a bit.  I

might try the external bade root sealant mod again to see if that works.



I have tried to attach a picture to explain.



Regards



Brian



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Remi Guerner

Joined: 14 Dec 2010
Posts: 284

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 12:29 pm Post subject: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

My Airmaster AP332 started to leak grease after a few hundred hours. After investigation, I found that the grease was leaking between the blade ferrule and the blade assembly retention nut. The culprit is the o-ring which seals the gap between the ferrule and the retention nut. This o-ring is submitted to friction every time the blade rotates during pitch changes and wears out with time. To replace this o-ring you need to remove the blade from the ferrule and I do not think you can put them back together without the appropriate tooling, so I decided to live with the inconvenience. My prop has more than 900 hours now and the leak rate is still acceptable to me.

Remi Guerner

F-PGKL

Rick Moss

Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 96

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

All good gents; the staining on mine indicates that it's coming from between the blade and the ferrule, so sealant may well be the solution. I'm minded to use sikaflex after degreasing, as there's no way that's getting flung out!

Rick Moss

Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 96

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:19 am Post subject: Re: Grease escaping from Airmaster prop

I have now degreased and sealed the annular space between the prop and the ferrule; as soon as weather permits I'll advise of the result.

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