I think you are entitled to change your handle to 'master coming on'.:)

Unlike your endorsing instructor on type who evidently didn't brief you well enough for you to be aware of Damper clamp problems so that you would be ahead of problems that would cause the below spontaneous statement.:{ If it was only a problem in the damper area that caused it that is.

The plastic ef talks about could be the spacers in the xmon planetary gear roller bearings, which should have been coupled to a small quantity of tiny steel slivers as the rollers tumble and break up.

Or maybe its a piece of the red o ring out of the starter drive adapter assy. That should have been coupled with lower oil pressure indication as well. I'd pull that before i pulled the engine out. But I don't know where the other material would be from in that event.

If its magnesium, we once found the accessory gear box drive gear bearing support - so chewed out that the gear was all set to disengage. But there were vast quantities of ground up magnesium in the filter very quickly.

The other test that ef talks about of rocking the mast for movement of the sprag rod ends, should be followed with the same test only checking for excess movement between the collective sleeve and the top of the inner ring of the swash plate.

I assume that you did pull the mast out before you pulled the xmon off? and also that you checked for absolutely no material of any sort sitting in the usual muck in the inner portion of the xmon drive gear on top of the engine?

Thankyou for your comments. You obviously know more about me than I do. The non ferrous metal in the filter is still a mystery but have got the engineer working on a saturday so thats a good start.
Will let you know the outcome. :hmm:

The more we look at this the more I realise that you really needed to know your stuff on these older aircraft.


ericferret