kx 155 lcd display replacement price

This is a tangent to my previous discussion item looking for avionics shop recommendations. I have a KX-155 Nav/Com with display issues and am having a hard time identifying a repair or replacement option. As has been pointed out on many forums Bendix King abandoned this market. As far as I have been able to determine, they do not offer a 14 volt replacement unit. Display repair is difficult to find, as new display units are not being made. Some avionics shops do offer repair, but cost is in the $2K neighborhood - a lot to pay to fix a 35 year old radio.

TKM advertises the MK 155 as a slide in replacement. Currently this unit is non-TSO"d. Also, their website does not offer any way to call them and discuss. Only option is to fill out a form. Filled it out, no reply.

Garmin GNC 225 seems like a nice (but pricey) unit. I do not like that only Com or Nav are displayed, you have to switch between which you want to see.

Next up that lens is glued in place with the gas display behind it a little bit and not touching the lens. 4 screws and the front cover pops off. remove and re seat the display and see what happens. If it comes back on the right side there is a rheostat that can adjust the brightness. turn it clockwise and see what you got.

I"d love to have a KX-155 corpse to see if I can adapt very efficient, very cheap LED display to. If you ever decide you want to sell that sucker for nickels and dimes to somebody who will be able to design and supply replacement displays for a reasonable price, you will be a hero to lots of your aviation buddies.

OK, it was listed as-is... interesting thing, no display, I thought at first. Found that with a bright light shining on it, I can see the numbers. It seems to be functional except for the display, and it appears that it has the LCD display upgrade that B/K has been offering, not the original Gas. Part numbers on the box are 069-01032-0101 (as expected) *and* 069-01032-9900 (which I can"t seem to decode).

With some digging I found that part 037-05105-0001 is the old gas display, and might run somewhere in the 300 to 700 dollar range. I found one item on the web that says the new LCD display costs $1333 as a part, and the B/K referb program will install the replacement display for $1750.

Well, I can"t see dropping $1750 onto this thing. $1333 for the LCD part (anyone have that part number?) and installing it myself also goes beyond what I"d like to invest. Anyone know my options? Can I just backgrade the LCD display with the Gas one (assuming I can find one), is that plug & play?

Still, we’re not sure dropping nearly seven grand for a new navcomm install always makes sense. That’s what a brand new Garmin SL30 or KX155A install could cost. Instead, a good eye on the used market can uncover some bargains worth chasing. This includes reaching deeper into your pockets to buy a used legacy GNS430. If you’re a Narco owner, condolences. Those radios are toast.

There’s little flexibility here because there’s little standardization. Don’t expect an old Narco or ARC OBS indicator to work with a used KX155 you’ve found. On a higher level, don’t expect a KX155 to work with Garmin’s G500 PFD­—the KX155 lacks the digital output needed to connect. We applaud Aspen for being compatible nearly across the board. In that interface, Aspen’s ACU (analog converter unit) takes the KX155’s and others’ analog nav signal and converts it to a digital format for needle presentation.

The KX155 is an icon that remains in the Bendix/King product line. It’s a lively seller on the used market, but after so many years of production, there are various vintages to choose from. From our experience, older serial-numbered units with traditional circuit design (as opposed to newer units with surface-mount board design) seem to be good performers, particularly on the nav receiver side. However, failures of the gas discharge displays are routine maintenance events that tally a shop invoice of around $400 to $500. Be sure the one you pick has a healthy display.

Frequency channeling problems aren’t uncommon, the result of dirty or eventual failure of the gold-plated channeling switch contacts. The KX165 model has the integral VOR converter required to drive analog HSIs.

When Cessna started building aircraft again in the late 1990s, Honeywell launched what looked to be the KX155 replacement through the Silver Crown Plus series. This birthed the KX155A and KX165A. These models had some growing pains and reliability issues earlier on. They bring limitations to the aftermarket because of their 28-volt input requirements. On the plus side, they sport a more contemporary-looking bezel and useful features that were missing in legacy KX155s. This includes flight timer, frequency memory and recall, plus nav radial display.

Like vintage KX155s, the units are built with and without integral glideslope receivers. If you’re also shopping the standalone used GPS market, the 155A units support a KLN94 feature Bendix/King calls Quick Tune—an RS232-driven interface that plucks frequencies from the KLN94 database based on your position so you don’t have to search for and load them yourself. It works well and adds a bit of automation to otherwise ho-hum functionality. It also adds more wiring effort to the installation.

Pricing for used KX155s is all over the board, with non-glideslope and 28-volt KX155s selling for as low as $1200 while 14-volt and glideslope-equipped flavors demand $2500 and up, not counting indicator or install kit. List pricing for a factory-new KX155 with glideslope is $4560 and the KX165A is $5600.

Thanks in part to the DSP circuitry, the SL30 displays digital To/From, automatic display of station ID by encoding the received stations Morse code and digitally decoded OBS setting on the unit’s display. It has a built-in glideslope receiver and an 8-watt, 760-channel comm transceiver that features automatic emergency frequency call-up, frequency storage, and National Weather Service broadcasts.

These are digital, 760-channel navcomms with the ability to channel an existing remote glideslope receiver. There’s the Bendix/King replacement MX170C (not to be confused with the MAC1700 digital conversion to the KX170B front end), the ARC-replacement MX300/385 series radios and the MX12 if you still have the tube-driven Narco MK12A. The MX12 bypasses the remote power supply with its own solid state supply.

If you’re in the market for a new navcomm, either for primary or backing up an integrated navigator, our top pick is the Garmin SL30. We think it offers reliable and high-end comm and nav performance with a host of useful features packed in a space-saving chassis. If you have the space and need a reliable secondary backup, we think picking the best from the used KX155 litter makes the most sense. A plus is that the KX155 works well with Aspen PFDs, easily interfacing electronically as nav 2.