John Vance Posted March 30, 2017 Report Posted March 30, 2017 I'm using a CTEK 4.3 charger to top off the battery between flights. After the last flight about 5 days ago, I connected the charger and it displayed only an amber light at the "snowflake" position and a green power light (no error indication, no steps). Since it didn't start to progress through the steps as it normally does, I assumed that the battery was fully charged after the flight (I didn't have all of the electrical equipment running this time), and that it would begin charging when the time was right. However, before today's flight I found that it was displaying an error light and that it had not charged the battery. I couldn't find anything in the manual showing what it's supposed to do in the event of a fully charged battery when plugged in (assuming that's what I had). After today's flight it started charging normally. Has anyone experienced this behavior or know how to prevent this from happening?
Philip Welsch Posted March 30, 2017 Report Posted March 30, 2017 I had a similar situation with my CTEK. It turned out in my case the CTEK positive clip was not well connected to the aircraft charge wire. I corrected the connection and had to unplug and re plug the charger (re boot?) to get normal operation. PRW
John Vance Posted March 30, 2017 Author Report Posted March 30, 2017 I'll keep that in mind. I did try the same reconnect & reboot thing when I noticed that it wasn't acting as expected, but it didn't change anything. I'll try cleaning the wire and see if that helps.
Fly Boss Posted March 31, 2017 Report Posted March 31, 2017 Check the tightness of the battery terminals and tighten all 5 ground points. Depending on age of the plane and instrument array you may want to clean the 4 shunt wires with some scotchbrite and apply a dab of dielectric grease to each. The shunt is behind the instrument panel. Roger - a common solution to many of these electrical issues is to tighten the ground points. Where are all these locations? Are they documented somewhere obvious? Thanks Danny
John Vance Posted March 31, 2017 Author Report Posted March 31, 2017 Check the tightness of the battery terminals and tighten all 5 ground points. Depending on age of the plane and instrument array you may want to clean the 4 shunt wires with some scotchbrite and apply a dab of dielectric grease to each. The shunt is behind the instrument panel. Thanks, Roger. Is cleaning the shunt wires intended to fix the charging problem, or the low current indications discussed earlier?
Runtoeat Posted March 31, 2017 Report Posted March 31, 2017 Hi John. Are you attaching the ground from the CTEK to your exhaust pipe? I have found on my CT that the exhaust is a variable ground due to it relying on the exhaust joints for the path to the battery - one wouldn't think this would be the case but is seems not to be. When I have used the exhaust for grounding, my CTEK will act like your CTEK is doing, sometimes flashing "yellow" and sometimes back and 'forth between "green" and "yellow". I use the cowl zeuss fastener bracket by the "+" battery charging cable for my grounding point. The bracket is welded to the engine mount and the mount is connected to the battery "-" by a heavy grounding cable. The CTEK is sensitive and if the ground it not stable, it will let you know by the "yellow".
John Vance Posted March 31, 2017 Author Report Posted March 31, 2017 Hi Dick - I took your advice and have been using the the cowl fastener bracket from the start. I checked continuity for both the exhaust and the bracket with an ohmmeter and verified that the bracket was better, as you explained. You mentioned once that you sometimes connect the CTEK and that it indicates a full charge. How does it act in that case?
Runtoeat Posted April 1, 2017 Report Posted April 1, 2017 Hi John. If I have been sitting and playing with radio, ADS-B, etc., at idle I will loose full charge on battery. When I plug in CTEK it will initially show "yellow" and then will go "green" after a short while. Most of the time, it is "green" at gitgo when I plug in after or if I've been flying. If you see the "yellow" condition again, try wiggling the ground clamp to make sure you've got a good connection to the cowl bracket. CTEK is sensitive to this. If still "yellow" I might go direct to battery posts to bypass the grounding cables running from your engine mount to the battery to see if you might have a poor ground. I guess your CTEK might be suspect after this if you still have problems?
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