Well........what should have been an easy annual this year turned into a 3 month pain in the ass!! Keep in mind it was running like a Swiss watch prior to the annual. Everything checked out good but the plugs were wore. Swapped in a dozen new Champions. Test run after we were done and she was running super rough. EGT's at idle were way high. Idle mixture adjustment made no change. Sent the carb to Oklahoma for overhaul. Sucking air around the shaft, bad needle & seat and accelerator pump was very hard( still uses leather). "Sweet".....there's our problem.
Put her back together.....runs like shit.
Still running lean. Dig deeper....find a few bad intake gaskets. Replaced all six gaskets and boots......nope....runs like shit.
Pulled the mags.....internal timing was off and low voltage at idle. Did a 500hr on both mags......put back together....yep....runs like shit. At this point I'm getting worried. This engine only has 370 hrs since factory reman(in 2000) it did some sitting before I bought it. Local FBO owner is a friend....said he's had bad luck with champions. Swapped in a loaner set of tempest and she was purring like a kitten.
Apparently Champion quality is pretty bad for GA plugs these days. Got the new Tempest's put it and all is well. Pretty crazy all the things that were "wrong" and not causing problems.
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Night cross country.