Steve Brown
Well Known Member
Yesterday for the second time I replaced the quick drain on the copilot side wing tank.
The first time the rubber seal was completely missing and the thing was leaking at an alarming rate. This time it wasn't leaking as bad, but way too much to leave it.
When I got it off this time, I was surprised that the seal (O-ring) was intact, but an aluminum shaving was deforming it, allowing a leak. I had tried to clear any such problem by draining a lot of fuel through the valve, but apparently this chip was too large to get through.
Last time I drained the tank completely before replacing the valve. This time I decided to take one builders advice and just do it quickly before loosing too much fuel.
Takes two people.
I prepared the new one with fuel lube in advance and had my wife holding that one. When I removed the old one, I plugged the hole with my thumb until I was ready to put the new one in. It worked fine. I lost some fuel into a towel, probably less than a liter.
I'm thinking I have chips in the tank left over from construction. The first time I did this dry, which didn't allow those chips to get washed out. I'm hoping that the fuel I lost in this process was carrying the rest of the chips with it.
By the way, in case anyone is as dense as I am, replacing the O-ring does not require removing the retainer ring (or whatever its called) on the valve. I removed it on the first one I fixed before realizing that. Then it was obvious that the O-ring will easily push over.
The first time the rubber seal was completely missing and the thing was leaking at an alarming rate. This time it wasn't leaking as bad, but way too much to leave it.
When I got it off this time, I was surprised that the seal (O-ring) was intact, but an aluminum shaving was deforming it, allowing a leak. I had tried to clear any such problem by draining a lot of fuel through the valve, but apparently this chip was too large to get through.
Last time I drained the tank completely before replacing the valve. This time I decided to take one builders advice and just do it quickly before loosing too much fuel.
Takes two people.
I prepared the new one with fuel lube in advance and had my wife holding that one. When I removed the old one, I plugged the hole with my thumb until I was ready to put the new one in. It worked fine. I lost some fuel into a towel, probably less than a liter.
I'm thinking I have chips in the tank left over from construction. The first time I did this dry, which didn't allow those chips to get washed out. I'm hoping that the fuel I lost in this process was carrying the rest of the chips with it.
By the way, in case anyone is as dense as I am, replacing the O-ring does not require removing the retainer ring (or whatever its called) on the valve. I removed it on the first one I fixed before realizing that. Then it was obvious that the O-ring will easily push over.