Narrative:

At the beginning of the takeoff roll; the aircraft began to yaw left. After a couple seconds with full right rudder applied we noticed the left engine torque indication was reading approximately 45% while the right engine torque read approximately 95%. We executed a rejected takeoff; cleared the runway; and proceeded to run the rejected takeoff checklist. After the checklist was completed; we pulled into the run up area and called dispatch and maintenance control. Maintenance control then had us bring the power levers up to the control lock stop and read off the engine indications. The left engine torque read about 20% while the right engine torque read about 32%. The propeller gauge for the left engine read about 910 while the right engine propeller gauge read about 870. Maintenance control then had us switch the ecu's to manual mode. The left engine indications all dropped dramatically (torque=0%) while the right engine indications remained steady. We proceeded back to the gate and de-planed the passengers. At the gate; maintenance control had us do low power and takeoff power run ups. The low power run up showed the initial left engine torque gauge at about 20% with the right engine torque gauge around 32%. The left engine torque would gradually rise about 1% every three seconds while the right engine torque would slowly fall until both would be around 30%. The high power run up showed no significant differences in engine indications. Maintenance was trying to clear an MEL for the synchrophase system before we left. Since it was going to delay the flight for a while; the decision was made by someone to just finish the process later when the plane got back after the turn. The MEL expired at midnight the same day. I would suggest not waiting until the last minute to clear an MEL or don't start working on a broken plane and halfway through decide to quit and rush the plane back into flying to try and minimize a delay.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DHC8-200 had low torque on the left engine during takeoff and the takeoff was rejected. Maintenance had abandoned an attempt to repair a syncrophaser that had been deferred earlier to get the flight out on time.

Narrative: At the beginning of the takeoff roll; the aircraft began to yaw left. After a couple seconds with full right rudder applied we noticed the left engine torque indication was reading approximately 45% while the right engine torque read approximately 95%. We executed a rejected takeoff; cleared the runway; and proceeded to run the rejected takeoff checklist. After the checklist was completed; we pulled into the run up area and called dispatch and maintenance control. Maintenance control then had us bring the power levers up to the control lock stop and read off the engine indications. The left engine torque read about 20% while the right engine torque read about 32%. The propeller gauge for the left engine read about 910 while the right engine propeller gauge read about 870. Maintenance control then had us switch the ECU's to manual mode. The left engine indications all dropped dramatically (torque=0%) while the right engine indications remained steady. We proceeded back to the gate and de-planed the passengers. At the gate; maintenance control had us do low power and takeoff power run ups. The low power run up showed the initial left engine torque gauge at about 20% with the right engine torque gauge around 32%. The left engine torque would gradually rise about 1% every three seconds while the right engine torque would slowly fall until both would be around 30%. The high power run up showed no significant differences in engine indications. Maintenance was trying to clear an MEL for the Synchrophase system before we left. Since it was going to delay the flight for a while; the decision was made by someone to just finish the process later when the plane got back after the turn. The MEL expired at midnight the same day. I would suggest not waiting until the last minute to clear an MEL or don't start working on a broken plane and halfway through decide to quit and rush the plane back into flying to try and minimize a delay.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.