Before You Buy Slick Magnetos

Check out their warranty. It's short and not worth anything for long, or
to a successor owner.

And if you need help from them at Unison by phone, skip it. They're not
interested. And besides you'll be punching buttons on the phone trying to
get to a warm-blooded human being until you're fidgety and exasperated.
Maybe they don't have any warm-blooded humans there anyway.

I have a bad magneto lead and was really just trying to buy a replacement.
They will play phone and e-mail tag with you, ask you stupid questions, then
shove you over into the corner.

The good old Bendix mags are looking much better to me. Besides, when you
replace a lead you don't have to go through a major operation swaging it
into the distributor cap.

And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with my
personal aircraft twice.

Add that to your preflight list if you have Slick mags: "Check to see that
your distributor cap is still attached to the back of each magneto. Also
check to see that each of the three screws holding the harness onto each
magneto is tight and secure."

Does Slick have any competition? It sure as hell needs it.

I have always found Slick pretty good at answering technical questions anyway,
especially Harry Fenton.

And if you need help from them at Unison by phone, skip it.

You could buy a replacement lead from any of the major and minor distributors
or your friendly FBO.

I have a bad magneto lead and was really just trying to buy a replacement.

I was thinking about writing about the experience I am having with certain
Bendix mags in a Skymaster, two failures at less than 200 hours with internal
nylon and plastic parts melting. (To be fair to Bendix the affected parts are
after market so I really should be mad at ElectroSystems.) I am seriously
considering replacing the AD prone Bendix types with Slicks.

The good old Bendix mags are looking much better to me.

Have never seen this happen on any Slick mag in 20 plus years. Are the screws
properly torqued?

And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with my
personal aircraft twice.


Aircraft ownership; Not for the faint of heart or wallet.

John Dupre'

jls wrote:

Check out their warranty. It's short and not worth anything for long, or
to a successor owner.

It's one year. If a mag doesn't break in the first year, it's likely to last a *long*
time. Slick also has an excellent record of honoring claims when a mag breaks shortly
after the warrantee runs out.

And if you need help from them at Unison by phone, skip it.

That was not my experience in 1997. I wound up speak with the president of the
company when I had a problem.

I have a bad magneto lead and was really just trying to buy a replacement.
They will play phone and e-mail tag with you, ask you stupid questions, then
shove you over into the corner.

With that sort of request, they generally refer you to a local dealer. In my case,
that was Pen-Yan.

The good old Bendix mags are looking much better to me.

Then buy some.

And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with my
personal aircraft twice.

Really? Hasn't happened to me. I've owned aircraft with Slick mags for over 15 years.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

"JDupre5762" wrote in message
...
I have always found Slick pretty good at answering technical questions
anyway,
especially Harry Fenton.

Unfortunately Harry left the company a short while ago.

And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with my
personal aircraft twice.

We have those mags on five airplanes, and the screws have never
backed out on any of them in the eight years I have been looking after
them. These mags fly 3000-4000 hours a year between them.
OTOH, the dual Bendix mag on the R182 is a positive pain in the
%^%#$@!

Dan

"Dan Thomas" wrote in message
om...
And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have
found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of
the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with
my
personal aircraft twice.

We have those mags on five airplanes, and the screws have never
backed out on any of them in the eight years I have been looking after
them. These mags fly 3000-4000 hours a year between them.
OTOH, the dual Bendix mag on the R182 is a positive pain in the
%^%#$@!

Dan

Ah, OK, Dan, to be fair with Slick and Unison, I will have to say that we
got the harness repaired yesterday and most of it was needing cleaning.
Apparently there was an almost invisible carbon track on a cigarette and a
little carbon on the distributor cap. Afterwards, the engine ran smooth as
silk.

But as for those screws that back out, the news spread, two or three people
got nervous about theirs and sure enough they found some loose and one of
three screws backed completely out and gone.

You may have plenty of space at the back of the mags where you or your
mechanics can get a screwdriver in there and do some serious torquing. On
an aircraft where the fit is close, it is more difficult to tighten the
screw. I remember one where all the screws but one were gone and the third
was loose: the only thing holding the harness to the mag was the tight
space.

Blue Loctite maybe?

As for Unison's offer to give advice at its website, my experience says that
THAT is worthless as the teats on a boar hog. The last time I asked for a
little tech help I got an e-mail after a couple of days wait and a number to
call some chap in Jacksonville. All I could get was his voice-mail. So I
gave up.

Don't get me started on their damn sparkplugs. It doesn't take them long
before they are rusty.

As I recall, you can get those screws with drilled heads for safety wire.

Jim



" jls"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:


-
-But as for those screws that back out, the news spread, two or three people
-got nervous about theirs and sure enough they found some loose and one of
-three screws backed completely out and gone.
-
-You may have plenty of space at the back of the mags where you or your
-mechanics can get a screwdriver in there and do some serious torquing. On
-an aircraft where the fit is close, it is more difficult to tighten the
-screw. I remember one where all the screws but one were gone and the third
-was loose: the only thing holding the harness to the mag was the tight
-space.



Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

" jls" wrote in message ...
"Dan Thomas" wrote in message
om...
And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have
found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of
the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with
my
personal aircraft twice.

We have those mags on five airplanes, and the screws have never
backed out on any of them in the eight years I have been looking after
them. These mags fly 3000-4000 hours a year between them.
OTOH, the dual Bendix mag on the R182 is a positive pain in the
%^%#$@!

Dan

Ah, OK, Dan, to be fair with Slick and Unison, I will have to say that we
got the harness repaired yesterday and most of it was needing cleaning.
Apparently there was an almost invisible carbon track on a cigarette and a
little carbon on the distributor cap. Afterwards, the engine ran smooth as
silk.

But as for those screws that back out, the news spread, two or three people
got nervous about theirs and sure enough they found some loose and one of
three screws backed completely out and gone.

You may have plenty of space at the back of the mags where you or your
mechanics can get a screwdriver in there and do some serious torquing. On
an aircraft where the fit is close, it is more difficult to tighten the
screw. I remember one where all the screws but one were gone and the third
was loose: the only thing holding the harness to the mag was the tight
space.

Blue Loctite maybe?

Purple is better for small screws (Loctite 222). Not so strong as
to make removal difficult.

As for Unison's offer to give advice at its website, my experience says that
THAT is worthless as the teats on a boar hog. The last time I asked for a
little tech help I got an e-mail after a couple of days wait and a number to
call some chap in Jacksonville. All I could get was his voice-mail. So I
gave up.

Don't get me started on their damn sparkplugs. It doesn't take them long
before they are rusty.

I'm going to get you started. We find Unisons outperform and
outlast Champions by a wide margin. Champion has a spring-loaded
resistor in their plug that seems to lose contact after a while, and
internal arcing reduces spark strength. Unison's (Auburn's old design)
has a molded-in resistor that gives no trouble at all. We won't use
Champs unless forced to.

Dan

"Dan Thomas" wrote in message
om...
[...]
Blue Loctite maybe?

Purple is better for small screws (Loctite 222). Not so strong as
to make removal difficult.

As for Unison's offer to give advice at its website, my experience says
that
THAT is worthless as the teats on a boar hog. The last time I asked
for a
little tech help I got an e-mail after a couple of days wait and a
number to
call some chap in Jacksonville. All I could get was his voice-mail.
So I
gave up.

Don't get me started on their damn sparkplugs. It doesn't take them
long
before they are rusty.

I'm going to get you started. We find Unisons outperform and
outlast Champions by a wide margin. Champion has a spring-loaded
resistor in their plug that seems to lose contact after a while, and
internal arcing reduces spark strength. Unison's (Auburn's old design)
has a molded-in resistor that gives no trouble at all. We won't use
Champs unless forced to.

Dan

Interesting info. Thanks, Dan. And I'll buy some of that purple Loctite
too. But I have some 3-year-old Unison sparkplugs with good electrodes.
The bodies of the plugs have rusted all to hell. I'll keep them, though,
especially since you have praised their insides.

Nauga agreeing with Larry? What's the world coming to? g

jls wrote...

Check out their warranty.

I plan to tomorrow. I've got either a bad lead or
a bizarre problem with the mag, and they're both
brand new.

And you know something else? I don't know how many Slick mags I have
found
on airplanes with the cap backing off the mag because one or more of the
screws has backed out and fallen out of it. It's happened to me with my
personal aircraft twice.

Add two more to your count. I found loose screws
on both caps last week. They were properly torqued
when installed 25 flight hours ago. Blue thread locker
and inspection lacquer, and you better believe I do the
monkey crawl with an inspection mirror as part of every
preflight now.

Dave 'double jointed' Hyde

RV-4 in flight test