So I work at a fairly large flight school, we have almost 50 airplanes in one location...so anyways the shop is setup fairly good for performing inspections. They have a fairly new ATS spark plug cleaner. I have a 35 year old Champion that was worn out. I was trying to figure out why my plugs were not getting as clean as they should with the ATS, I put in new media, and replaced the nozzle...no nozzle in the ATS. I brought mine into work, put in a new grommet and nozzle and the plugs are beautiful. My point is that sometimes new tech is not always the best tech. Tim
Plug cleaners
- Thread starter astjp2
- Start date
on here somewhere theres a interesting read about clean and good plugs and getting the best of both worlds. this is one but i see your allready digging into it.https://www.supercub.org/forum/show...your-spark-plugs&highlight=spark+plug+cleaner
mike mcs repair
Registered User
chugiak AK
Ha!!!
Ridiculous.
But I make my money from labor. I don’t mark up any part prices a penny...
I’m Not some full time employee or just a part changer dude.
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Charlie Longley
MEMBER
Anchorage, AK
I would love to have a Champion spark plug cleaner but get by with my ATS unit. If they start building them again for a reasonable price I would buy one. I keep my eye out for a decent used one.
$28x8 is a lot of money, every month if we do 100 per month. I can de lead, clean, gap, ohm and pressure test 8 plugs in 20 minutes with the correct tools, it’s 2 hours with a dental pick and a thumbscrew gap tool. Some people will spend the time to anneal gaskets, .25 each I replace. Tim
Still clean plugs and test on plug tester. I have an ATS unit. Works fine. Doesn’t take long.
A few years back there was a lot of chatter about testing spark plugs with an Ohm meter to check resistance. It can’t hurt to do that as well. You can just blast them in a blasting cabinet and ohm them out.
I kind of like seeing the arc when you buzz them. Old school.
Cheers,
Dave
A few years back there was a lot of chatter about testing spark plugs with an Ohm meter to check resistance. It can’t hurt to do that as well. You can just blast them in a blasting cabinet and ohm them out.
I kind of like seeing the arc when you buzz them. Old school.
Cheers,
Dave
hotrod180
FRIEND
Port Townsend, WA
I run at least 75% e-zero mogas, so plugs run extremely clean-- so lead clinkers to dig out.
All I need to do is give them a quick blast.
Check & adjust gaps.
Ohm test.
Rotate & back into the engine.
My time is free for my own airplane, but even getting paid it'd be way cheaper to do this than pop for new plugs every year.
FWIW be careful about where & how you blast your plugs.
Tempest cautions against bead blasting with glass beads.
Sparkplug-Cleaning-The-Right-Way-081412.pdf (tempestplus.com)
One local mechanic has a small blast cabinet dedicated to plugs only, using the correct media.
I use one of those little bag-type cleaners,, slow but works OK--
esp since my plugs don't need much cleaning.
Crash Jr.
Registered User
Anchorage, AK
I'll preface this by saying I totally understand saving money and I do gap and clean my spark plugs myself but...
Lets be honest, $224 really isn't that much money in airplane terms. It's normally a $100k aircraft that the owner is tripping over spending $200 on spark plugs. If the mechanic takes even just one hour to do that same spark plug cleaning and gapping you're talking $100-$150 in shop time and you still have old spark plugs. Cheapest thing on the airplane is the pilot. Those same pilots will run out all starry eyed and snatch up the latest glass panel gizmo or carbon part and spend many thousands of dollars but raise a stink when it's time to replace their spark plugs. Just a little cognitive dissonance that I've seen in the industry.
And if, as a mechanic, you don't charge a markup on parts then why not? You are cheating yourself of the time it takes to drive to the store, pick up that part, and return to install it on the owner's aircraft. Marking a spark plug up 10% and getting your $22 isn't the end of the world for the customer as it's simply time that they don't have to spend running around picking up parts and paying retail pricing.
There it is, my pot stirring for the day
mike mcs repair
Registered User
chugiak AK
I'll preface this by saying I totally understand saving money and I do gap and clean my spark plugs myself but...
Lets be honest, $224 really isn't that much money in airplane terms. It's normally a $100k aircraft that the owner is tripping over spending $200 on spark plugs. If the mechanic takes even just one hour to do that same spark plug cleaning and gapping you're talking $100-$150 in shop time and you still have old spark plugs. Cheapest thing on the airplane is the pilot. Those same pilots will run out all starry eyed and snatch up the latest glass panel gizmo or carbon part and spend many thousands of dollars but raise a stink when it's time to replace their spark plugs. Just a little cognitive dissonance that I've seen in the industry.
And if, as a mechanic, you don't charge a markup on parts then why not? You are cheating yourself of the time it takes to drive to the store, pick up that part, and return to install it on the owner's aircraft. Marking a spark plug up 10% and getting your $22 isn't the end of the world for the customer as it's simply time that they don't have to spend running around picking up parts and paying retail pricing.
There it is, my pot stirring for the day
I don’t mark up parts prices. But travel time is at shop rate, which is $90 an hour, so it’s something like $1.50 a minute. And if I come to buy it from your store it’s probably out of stock anymore since it got bought out. (Maybe only 2 or 3 trips a year anymore for above reason) So I figure $90 to $115 per travel time per round trip to anchorage if I also have to go to Stoddards also
But it only takes maybe 10 or ?? minutes to clean plugs, gap, and anneal a batch of washers
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mike mcs repair
Registered User
chugiak AK
Also reminds me of the (opposite) lack of logic when I was 17 and worked at the school doing maintenance. I was payed $15 hour but we would spend a half hour cleaning the paint rollers that only cost $2 or 3$. Boss said he had a labor budget and a materials budget. Doesn’t add up ....
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Check Craig's list, hear in the Carolinas they come up every few months or so for $100.00 to $200.00.
I picked up a AC Delco ( they were all made by the same company and minor items were done for each brand)
for $125 last March, had 3 lbs. of abrasive in the unit ,had 4/5 rubbers that fit different plugs as well as three sizes of metal plug holders for the electric check.
unit works great.
They are heavy as in 50 0r so lbs. including a stand. I expect it would cost more to ship than to buy .
No its not for sale.8)
Grant
FRIEND
At Work.....
When I say 100 per month, I am talking a 100 hour inspection monthly for 13 airplanes with the Lycoming, which would be about $3k in spark plugs per year per airplane. We also have about 25 airplanes with Rotax's in them, they just get replaced at the 400 hours when we run on Mogas.
My Champion plug cleaner power supply quit on me last week...
I started to freak out because Champion wants like $580 for the power supply. So I get out the fluke meter and pull the power supply, no buzzing so I start looking for where the 120Vac goes, get to the factory push button and AH HA, no power through the switch. So I went looking for that part, it was $60 for it. So I asked the parts girl to run to the electronics supply store. Found a suitable switch, make the swap and I am back in business. So while researching the unit, the instructions said that air should leak from around the plug to reduce the ionized air in the pressure chamber...who would have thought! I also found a calibration procedure for my exact model and performed that with the Champion RJ12YC spark plug. Set the pressure with the shop air regulator, adjust the pot at the bottom of the power supply until the plug stops sparking, fine tune it and now it runs like a champion again!
I started to freak out because Champion wants like $580 for the power supply. So I get out the fluke meter and pull the power supply, no buzzing so I start looking for where the 120Vac goes, get to the factory push button and AH HA, no power through the switch. So I went looking for that part, it was $60 for it. So I asked the parts girl to run to the electronics supply store. Found a suitable switch, make the swap and I am back in business. So while researching the unit, the instructions said that air should leak from around the plug to reduce the ionized air in the pressure chamber...who would have thought! I also found a calibration procedure for my exact model and performed that with the Champion RJ12YC spark plug. Set the pressure with the shop air regulator, adjust the pot at the bottom of the power supply until the plug stops sparking, fine tune it and now it runs like a champion again!
