Anybody know where it is located in the Citabria?

Karmutzen wrote:Anybody know where it is located in the Citabria?

Mine's by the battery.

If you are talking about the master relay, its always beside the battery box in a Citabria. Sometimes the starter relay will be there as well, and sometimes on the firewall, depending on year of manufacture. The master relays suck, I only get about 2-3 yrs and then they quit working. 10 below in Feb and the relay doesnt work makes you keep a spare in the plane. Seems like I remember you can only find them at ACA.

Jim

I was having a lot of trouble with my P172D's master not coming on without flipping the switch several times, and I thought it was mostly the battery but also some cable end corrosion. Turns out it was a combination. Cleaning all of the terminals from the battery (which is in the tail) all the way forward improved things a lot and gave me another year on the battery, but a year ago I finally had it replaced with a Concord AGM. That has made all the difference--that sucker has lots of cranking power and lots of life when it has to sit for a couple weeks. Pricey, though--$360 for the battery alone, plus the box had to be modified a little. Oh, and the relay turned out to be just fine.

Cary

Cary wrote:... Pricey, though--$360 for the battery alone, plus the box had to be modified a little. Oh, and the relay turned out to be just fine.

Cary

Price a G-54C sometime! I'm religious about the battery maintainer & trying to stretch it's life out as long as possible!

On my 7GCBC it is on the firewall to the rear of the oil dipstick

Most likely could get out and back to civilization with an old Ford starter relay.
I actually carry the rubber coated marine or Warn Winch water proof version for emergency.
91.3 right
Trim

AKSledder wrote:On my 7GCBC it is on the firewall to the rear of the oil dipstick

That a full size Concorde 25, or an itty bitty Odyssey on your firewall?

TrimTab:

I dont think the master relay works that way. I think when you throw the master switch, it grounds the relay, instead of positive power. I cant remember but will check it out this weekend thus the NAPA relays wont work. You can get home in a failure by swapping the input/output leads onto one terminal stud, but then you cant kill the power. Got me home.

Scouter:

I cannot remember a coil that ever cared if you left the power on one side and switched the other side to ground - or left one side grounded and put the switch on the power side.

Trim

Trimtab wrote:Most likely could get out and back to civilization with an old Ford starter relay.
I actually carry the rubber coated marine or Warn Winch water proof version for emergency.
91.3 right
Trim

I would advise that NO ONE! use a ford starter relay in place of the correct master relay in any case! They are not a continuous duty relay. Almost burn up my truck in college that way.

I'd carry the correct one if you choose to have spares onboard, or the FAR you referenced & bypass it for an emergency.

I'm religious about the battery maintainer & trying to stretch it's life out as long as possible!

Me too. I usually plug it in after every flight in the winter, less religiously in the summer. My old battery lasted a bit longer than 7 years that way.

Cary

And you're right--about twice--pretty pricey.

C

L-19

Admittedly I was a little glib about the Ford relay, Some old farm boy attitudes change slowly. But, my Warn Winch one will carry quite a bit for quite a while. Worst case use of that relay the was on the last of 7 winch pulls on what was once the most difficult 4x4 run in Calif. Sixty degrees for over seventy feet, (some say ninety feet) up against an onrush of water. Panamint Valley to Panamint City.

The other factor for me is that I have converted ALL circuit breakers to the PULL as well as push type. So, I can disconnect every thing before start up, and even shut off the Master after starting.
SHOULD have no problem running a com radio once close to home, or even go in eyes wide open NARDO when getting out of the backcountry. I do have a handheld which got me all the way to Alaska in the early 80s in an old J5,

I know that connecting the two wires on one side will work electrically. BUT, since I have had a couple of alternators / regulators short out and run full power into the battery with near disastrous boil over results (boil over with hydrogen gas and acid blowing all over the firewall) before I could get on the ground, I would rather be able to switch off the master and get that HOT Sh$t out of the way.

Still I Agree, IF, you are going to carry a spare relay, it might as well be the correct one, especially if you are one of those who are uncomfortable without a full and redundant IFR panel all lit up, and NO PULL type circuit breakers. I learned to fly old late forties planes with NO more electircal except "P" lead grounding switches and the ingnition harness.

I just happen to have the waterproof Warn Winch relay as a spare from my old 4x4 I.H. Scout days.
That was back in the days when we had a banner that said, "We Race Farm Equipment."

PS: My Scout is the only Scout to ever make it all the way to Panamint City. Next year a gaggle of Scouts tried it and spent nearly thirty hours to only get to the first three small of seven waterfalls.

PPS: While I am at it I will describe the return back down that seventy foot drop, I winched down the smaller Jeeps so that they would not go over on their backs when they hit the bottom. Then I looked at the spotter and he just shrugged as a Scout had never done it before. So, I creep up in idle with a little brake and my foot lightly over the gas peddle. Then, when all friction is lost, I hit the bottom, my foot over the gas peddle punched it and pulled the front out from under a probable end-over. Just sat there in the pool of water at the bottom waiting for the adrenalin to ease off.
Sorry if the off topic is inappropriate.

Trim