Replacement Jabiru Voltage Regulator: Follow-up

[MichaelFarley56]

Me too! I’ll take one!

[142YX]

Interested as well.

My first Kubota failed on me after about 50 hours, then had a string of repeated failures until i figured out i was using Chinese counterfeit Kubota regulators. I have about 200 hours on my replacement genuine Kubota at this point, but always fly with a spare.

[142YX]

Bumping this thread to see if the community has any learnings on this topic over the past (almost) two years?

About a month after my last post in this thread here (in September 2019) my wife and I were 5 min into a cross country vacation flight and experienced yet another Kubota voltage regulator failure (this would have been my fourth, in about 400 hours flight time). Luckily, we were able to immediately land (only consequence was that I was under battery power, and lost RPM indication to the Dynon) replace with a spare that I already had (genuine Kubota, not a counterfeit), and about an hour later were back on our way to our vacation. As soon as we returned 4 days later, I ordered another spare. But now it has been almost two years, and I have put another hundred hours on the Jabiru.. so I can't help but think every time I fly that I am moments away from a similar experience.

Has anyone installed or been running a B&C voltage regulator? Success? Issues?

https://bandc.com/product/avc1-advanced ... lation-kit

[tx_swordguy]

I have no information about the regulator in question. I do however have about 220 + on my current kubota reg. I do have a small 12v computer fan directly in front of the reg. drawing about .1 amps that is tied to my master. The fan is always on with the master being on. I did that since my reg was high up on the the port side of the firewall and probably does not get much ventilation. So far I have been happy with it and it seems to work. I do however keep a spare with me just incase. Maybe I have been lucky or maybe the cooling air is helping. For $10 and a little time it seems worth it so far.

[DCASonex]

Much the same here. Still running the original Jabiru supplied regulator after 430 some odd hours over 8+ years. Swapped out the original problematic Jab 3300 for the current CAMit 3300 at about the 150 hour mark, but still the same regulator which is mounted on a stand off SS plate on the firewall and cooled by a vent out the back of the left side plenum much like the vents cooling the mags (and the fuel pump) .

David A.

[142YX]

Interesting. For those of you who have had trouble-free success for 200+ hours with the Jabiru stock regulator (Kubota), curious what your average steady-state current draw in flight may be?

My set up has a dual Dynon skyview system, and I do run a boost pump during take off and landing. Right after take off i typically see 20 amps as the battery re-charges from startup and taxi out, and then within 5 minutes drops down to anywhere between 9~12 amps steady state (with another amp or two if the lights are on).

Perhaps I have a higher than average current draw and and working the regulator a bit more? Still less than the 17 amp continuous rating that Jabiru publishes..

[GordonTurner]

I may very well be misunderstanding this, but I think the voltage regulator on a pm generator works less when demand is high, not more (???¿¿¿)

[DCASonex]

If seeing 20 amp charge rate after startup, it sounds like you may be using a lithium battery. I had an EarthEx 900 in mine for couple of years, but gave up on it after a problem in the battery re-occurring each Spring, and much concern about the possibility of burning up the flywheel alternator which is very marginal at that high a draw. Went back to my old Odyssey battery and rarely see charge rates more than a few amps, so low I have not made not of it.

David A.

[142YX]

Actually I am using an Odyssey PC625 dry cell battery

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ ... eydry2.php

I have had to replace the battery about every 2 years, as it gets noticeably weak in about that time frame and doesn't turn the Jabiru over with the same strength as a fresh one (even after a full charge). I don't know if, again due to the voltage regulator, i am not giving it the charge that it would like and therefore am hurting it's expected life. The Odyssey manual says something about batteries in use that routinely do not get a full recharge developing a sulfated oxide buildup which hurts their capacity. I am in a generator power only hangar situation.. so i should probably look into a solar powered trickle charger to keep my battery more healthy, but don't want to derail this thread too much talking about that.

I have also not done the Jabiru generator wiring modification for higher low RPM voltage.