jmuck78
Well-Known Member
HI Charlie-
I recently flew an M1350W DMS - Followed the directions religiously...The Motor spit out the forward closure when it came up to pressure (still on the rail), Needless to say the rest if the "event" was not pretty, My L3 was pretty much toast - literally. I have a second motor on order and am now a bit gun shy to use it in the coming rebuild. Is there a known cause for this? I used the enclosed epoxy, etc ---to the directions. It seemed very secure right up to the point that it was...not.
ideas?
Steve
I know this question wasn't directed at me, but I had the same experience last year on my L3 flight, as a matter of fact. I also followed the directions carefully, but I believe there was an ambiguity in the instructions at the time where the instructions don't indicate how much the forward closure needs to be recessed into the motor case. It turns out, there needs to be at least a 1 inch thick ring of epoxy. Mine ended up being much less than that even though it felt like the forward closure was in as far as it would go.
What rocket were you using the motor in? I was flying a wildman extreme and used three centering rings. The forward closure failure failed with enough forced that it essentially deployed the ebay and everything "north" of it out of the way. The damage ended up being confined to the booster section forward of the forward-most centering ring, resulting in a fairly straightforward repair. Good luck!