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APU inlet door actuator froze up on a Mesa bird at 6am, and the MEL saved my butt
Had an Apache actuator seize on the left APU inlet door during a preflight in Mesa last Tuesday, temp was around 38 degrees and the thing just wouldn't cycle. I pulled the breaker, cycled it twice, no luck, so I wrote it up and we went out on the MEL with the door pinned open. Looked at the unit after the flight and the grease was like peanut butter, so I'm guessing it hadn't been serviced in a while. Anyone got a trick for freeing these up without pulling the whole actuator, or is it just a swap every time?
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the_holly17d ago
Ugh, that peanut butter grease is the worst, seen it way too many times in cold weather. Honestly once that actuator is that far gone, swapping it is usually faster than trying to flush and re-grease, because the seals are probably shot too. If you really want to try saving it, warm it up with a heat gun first and work it back and forth while you cycle the breaker, sometimes that breaks it loose. But nine times out of ten it just seizes again in a week, so I'd just turn the part and move on.
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