Panel lights failure in Piper WarriorII

After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which should
go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker is
in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip Nav
lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if it
is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
the group.
N2096L.

A ton of things could be wrong. A broken wire for beginners and a fried
dimming transistor for another.
Michelle

Piperflyer wrote:

After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which should
go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker is
in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip Nav
lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if it
is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
the group.
N2096L.






--

Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity

Piperflyer wrote:
: After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which should
: go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker is
: in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
: Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
: connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip Nav
: lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if it
: is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
: the group.
: N2096L.

Dunno about the Warrior, but on my Cherokee there are 2 dimmers, one for the
overhead light and one for the panel lights. The overhead light dimmer
turns on the NAV lights.
The panel lights draw something like 3 amps. All this current goes through
a little-bitty switch on the dimmer potentiometer. This switch was made
to turn a transistor radio on and off. It burned out on my plane. The
panel lights didn't come on. The fix was to get a new potentiometer/switch
(for $170) and have it installed.
As Michelle P. pointed out, there's a dual transistor dimmer as well. I
have found this to be pretty reliable but others have reported many
problems with it. Lookign through the Google archive should be illuminating
as well.
--
Aaron Coolidge (N9376J)

Aaron Coolidge wrote:

...should be illuminating...

:-)

Michelle is correct, it could be anything. Probably a loose wire though. I
had the panel lights go out on me (on the ground) and I felt around behind
the dimmer pot via under the panel for obvioulsy loose wires. I was able to
find it and my A&P fixed the problem accordingly. YMMV, it could be
something entirely different.

Marco


"Michelle P" wrote in message
ink.net...
A ton of things could be wrong. A broken wire for beginners and a fried
dimming transistor for another.
Michelle

Piperflyer wrote:

After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which
should
go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker
is
in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip
Nav
lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if
it
is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
the group.
N2096L.






--

Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity

There is a pot, transistor, and possibly, (depending on yr of mfg) a
resistor in the transistor base circuit.
BTW, check to see if the resistor (if any) has been updated . The M/M for
my Seneca says that Piper offered field replacements as an improvement.

"Piperflyer" wrote in message
...
After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which
should
go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker
is
in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip Nav
lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if
it
is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
the group.
N2096L.

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 04:56:34 -0400, "Piperflyer"
wrote:

After the hurricane, I found the panel lights on the left side which should
go on with the Nav lights, are out. Nav lights do come on. Circuit braker is
in.What could be the problem? Someone might know the answer outright.
Couldn't be the bulb since all of them don't light up (unless they're
connected in series). Probably not the switch either since the wingtip Nav
lights come on. Should it be checked by a mechanic or Avionics shop or if it
is something trivial, maybe I can do it myself. Appreciate any input from
the group.
N2096L.


I had a similar problem a few months ago in my Cherokee. Turned out
to be a simple corrosion problem on the dimmer control.

My Cherokee has a three-position switch on the dash with HIGH/OFF/LOW
positions. Either LOW or HIGH turns on the Nav lights, but there is a
difference in how high the dash lights come on. Then, there is an
adjustable dimmer control under the dash.

We cranked that dimmer control all the way back and forth a couple
times - and it was fixed. (That cleaned the corrosion off the
contacts in the dimmer switch).

Hope that helps - good luck.


Chuck