Almost too late! You need to know this!!

jerryab · #1 06-02-2010, 08:18 PM

During my last flight I had smelled gasoline in the cockpit, Took cowling off and couldn't located leak, thought it was a new carb supplying too much fuel. WAS I EVER WRONG. My A/P came over to take a look and probably saved my aircraft and me from an impending disaster! I have an Andair Gascolator mounted on the firewall. Two fuel lines, one goes in from the tanks, the other goes out to the carb. Each line is screwed on to a stardard fitting, BUT THE FITTINGS ARE SECURED TO THE BODY OF THE GASCOLATORS WITH 4 SMALL SCREWS. These are small and hard to see, but three of the four had come completely out of the fitting for the out going line to the carb. The fourth was ready to come out, which would have resulted in fuel pooring into the engine compartment. I urged everyone with similar gascolaters to start checking the gascolator at each oil change or anytime the lower cowling is removed. I had never paid any attention to this area. It took a mirror to see this screws were missing because they were on the inboard line. I'll gladly provide pic's if requested. OH SO CLOSE to disaster.

Jerry Martin
RV6A N331RD

asav8tor · #2 06-02-2010, 08:31 PM

Good heads up. I believe those screws have a drop of thread locker, or I used thread locker + you are supposed to center punch the edge of the screw to prevent it from coming out. Did you know if either/both of those conditions were in place on your installation?

Walt · #3 06-02-2010, 08:50 PM

Just as an FYI, the Andair fuel selector has the same type fittings.

pmccoy · #4 06-02-2010, 08:54 PM

The Andair fuel selector valve is the same. I had done the punch through the edge, as mentioned in the last post, then decided to switch the orientation of the connector. It took me a long time to drill out the screws. Punching out a spot on he side of the screw works very well.

jerryab · #5 06-03-2010, 08:52 AM

The screws had not been punched and did not have any "thread locker" on them. I had assumed this was a factory assembled part. Now finding some replacement screws is the problem. Shipping 3 screws from England seems a little "over the top", maybe I can locate them locally.

Jerry

flickroll · #6 06-03-2010, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerryab

I'll gladly provide pic's if requested.

Great save Jerry. If it's not too much trouble a picture would be great. Thanks

David-aviator · #7 06-03-2010, 09:03 AM

I have been using the 6 port valve for 7 years. It has the same fitting attach design as the gascolator. I do not recall any instructions to "punch" the screws when installing it, that must have come later.

So far, so good. The screws have not fallen out and there have been no fuel leaks.

kevinh · #8 06-03-2010, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David-aviator

I have been using the 6 port valve for 7 years. It has the same fitting attach design as the gascolator. I do not recall any instructions to "punch" the screws when installing it, that must have come later.

So far, so good. The screws have not fallen out and there have been no fuel leaks.

The little manual that came with my valve had a stern warning to punch the screws once the clocking had been set. Possibly that was added later. (I built my plane from 2002-2005)

Ron Lee · #9 06-03-2010, 09:50 AM

As for the screws, take the one that is still there and head to Ace Hardware. They may have similar screws.

swisseagle · #10 06-03-2010, 02:03 PM

Hello Jerry

Good that nothing happend to you and your plane.

Kevin is right, there is a small paper that tell you to do that as I remember.

There are two reason for andair not to tighten these screws, one is, that you maybe have to remove the connectors to bring the gascolator in place, the other, more possible one is, that depending on the fitting that you choose, it have to be rotate in the direction so that it fits your mounting/layout.

If andair woud do the punching on the screw and you have to take it away again, you would be not so happy.

I know Andy and Owen from Andair, give them a call, they will tell you the dimension of the screw which makes it easer to search for and for sure they will send you the missing one!

+44 23 9247 3945 , calling is better then e-mail, they live in england (just for timeshift reason).

Regards,

Dominik