Leaking Fuel Tank Rivet

[f14av8r]

Originally Posted by Bavafa

Why not trying the green Loctite method to see if that will fix it before opening the back>

As I said in the original post, I've tried all the external injection techniques offered on the website including green locktite. It helped but it did not solve the problem.

[f14av8r]

Originally Posted by rocketman1988

Maybe an AK-42H...countersunk, closed end, blind rivet...

Thank you Bob! I think this is exactly what I'm looking for. Ordering from Spruce. I'll let you know how it goes.

[eisnerrv4]

My brother and another AME fixed my leaky right fuel tank 2 years ago. Had to take it apart clean up all the old sealant, reseal and rerivet it. Then took it to an auto body paint shop to get it repainted. Everything turned out great, no more leakage and tank looks great. A lot of work but we'll worth it. Never had to do the left tank so far, fingers crossed. Airplane is 20 years old this year but only has 250 airframe hours on it.

[Captain Avgas]

Originally Posted by mulde35d

Watch for the shop head of the current rivet when it is drilled out. FOD in the fuel tank is never a good thing.

+1. I can?t see how you can avoid getting either swarf or a rivet head in your tank ( or both) when you drill out the rivet ....unless you remove the tank and open it up. It?s not the end of the world to remove a tank.

[olyolson]

Randy,

The RV-4 tank is not as hard to take off as you think. It’s a little time consuming unscrewing all those **** screws but the inside fuel line B nut will come off pretty easy. You can do the whole removal start to finish in an hour or two working slowly. That’s really the best way to do the repair, check the rest of the tank, make sure there’s no FOD and check all the other rivets while you’re in there. Like Brian said above, you can do all the cosmetics and repaint the tank while it’s off the plane or take it to a paint shop.

Don’t be too worried about taking that tank off, it’s really not that hard.

Good luck- post a progress report!

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Yes, the closed end rivet is great. The drilled out part of the rivet will stay in the ProSeal. Especially when you add the goop to the closed end rivet.

https://youtu.be/lG8IbjFFyz8

[664781]

Randy,
Use a lot of sealer when you install the pop rivet. Work it into the rivet before you install it. I have done it several times with no more leaks....

[sf3543]

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the loose shop end of the old rivet.
It'll probably stay in the old proseal instead of falling into the tank.
Also, the finger strainer at the fuel pick up will catch it, assuming it makes it past the internal ribs.
You can always take out the sump drain and run some gas through it a few times to clean out debris. You'd be surprised at the things I have found that way. Once, I found the finger tip of a latex glove that was in there likely since it was built 17 years prior.
good luck.

[caryr]

I have fixed several leakers.

drill it out and replace with a -3 pulled rivet.

butter it up inside and out and all over with Proseal

Insert and pull.

clean surface with an bit of acetone.

Removing the fuel stain is a different story.

I could be wrong, but I believe the fuel color gets under the clear coat.

I haven't wanted to sand and repaint just yet.

[Mark Dickens]

Originally Posted by caryr

I could be wrong, but I believe the fuel color gets under the clear coat.

I haven't wanted to sand and repaint just yet.

That's exactly what happened to me. I took the plane back down to the painter and he sanded it all off and reapplied clear coat. Needless to say, a very careful sanding job, probably wet sanded with very fine sandpaper. You can't tell there ever was a fuel stain.