At least six new and factory-rebuilt Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) 520- and550-series engines produced by TCM during a three-month period have suffered brokencrankshafts. This alarming fact came to light last week when TCM's new Director of FieldSales and Service, Bill Blackwood, phoned 127 owners of new and remanufactured engineswith crankshafts manufactured between March 11 and June 18, 1998, and asked them to havetheir crankshafts inspected at TCM's expense. TCM is asking each owner to have the #1 and#3 cylinders and connecting rods removed so that a dye-penetrant inspection of thecrankshaft can be performed on the aft side of the #2 crankshaft cheek, where five of thesix breaks have occurred. Additionally, TCM has issued Special Service Instruction SSI99-1, which details the inspection procedure and the area to be inspected.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/tcm-crankshaft-situationas-reported-in-avweb-newswire