What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Almost too late! You need to know this!!

jerryab

Member
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
 
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?
 
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.
 
Thread Locker

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

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
 
Last edited:
Do you punch the screw or the housing? I have the Andair valve and don't recall the instructions but it is possible that I have just missed it. Looking at their site and the pic of the valves, it seems they have punched the housing.
And there is no on-line manual on their site any thing in this regard.

Any additional info would greatly be appreciate it.
 
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.

I didn't do anything my fuel selector valve either. Was I supposed to? I not sure I know what "punch through the edge" means.
 
Andair installation

The procedure for "punching" the screw heads is also called
"staking". Andair fittings have a tiny notch that aligns with
the edge of the screws that attach those fittings to the valve
body. The idea is to hit the screw head with a center-punch
so that a little bit of metal is displaced into the notch on the
fitting. Done properly, this action prevents the screws from
backing out under vibration. Hopefully someone can post
a photo to clarify.

It is essential to follow this procedure when installing an
Andair valve or gascolator. This is one more example where
failure to carefully read the instructions that come with
flight-critical components can have severe consequences.

Heads-up to technical counselors! This is one very subtle
builder error to watch out for!

- Dan Benua
Repeat Offender & Technical Counselor
 
Thanks Dan for the info, makes sense and I will be checking mine. I just hope I won't have to remove the valve in order to punch it. Will see how much room I got to do this safely.
 
Here's a pic of one of their selectors. You can see the notches. Can I use my spring loaded punch to do this?

x7-1.jpg
 
Yes, thanks Dan! And thank you, Jerry for posting this thread.

As you know, Dan, I also have the Andair fuel selector valve and I don't recall seeing anything like this in the instructions. So I just went out in the shop and grabbed all the materials that came with the valve. There's nothing in the little instruction booklet. There's a big red tag that warns you not to operate the valve dry, but nothing about this. Then I saw a small label stuck on the little ziplock bag that contained the allen wrenches and screws. In small print it says "Ensure the heads of the screws are staged into the small holes with a punch on instillation." (their spelling; not mine)

I had completely missed this. It would have been so easy to toss this little ziplock bag in the trash. I'm one of those that hangs onto everything. If I had read it, I wouldn't have known what the word "staged" meant. I, too, would appreciate some elaboration or pictures about the method used, and how it's supposed to look.

I would also hope that Andair is seeing this thread. I would recommend they devote more attention to this in their instructions, explain how it's done in more detail, and maybe include a snapshot or drawing.
 
Thanks to everyone that has read this thread!

Thank all of you for your input, this truly is a critical issue for those of us that have these Andair Parts. I had just returned from a 5 hour xcountry when this was discovered. With 3 fatal accidents in RV's this weekend, I sure hope we all learn and pass it along. Thanks to DR for providing this forum. There were two people this week that got hit locally with a prop, both lived, but badly injured, Be careful out there! Airplanes are like Rattlesnakes, great animals but you had better know them very well if you are around them and respect their ability to strike at any moment with a lethal result!!
 
Address needet?

Hello Jerry

Due to Andy is not member of this forum, I let him know your story, here is his answer:

Hi Dominik,

Thanks for the link, It is difficult to offer a complete answer to this problem we have never had this occur before but there is always a first time, there must be in access of 10000 gascolators out there looking at our records.

I'm not on the VAF web site but if you could send him a note saying if he e-mail's his address to me I'll send him some screws.

On the gascolators we send out with male, hose and banjo fittings they are stagged (punched in the little holes) but the female fittings are sent with a screw pack and Allen key. We cannot send out any valve or gascolator using threadloc there is no external evidence that it has been secured.

Regards, Dominik
 
Offer for Screws

I found the replacement screws locally, Thanks for the offer, we've all learned a little from this.

Jerry
 
I could not find anything in the box that told me to stake these screws. I have the valve already installed. Perhaps a dab of RTV or Proseal on the screws will hold them in place?
 
EEECKS!

I have a fuel selector and a gascolator. I was wondering what all the extra screws were for, and I noticed that the holes looked like they needed something but I never put the two together. I had started to install the gascolator without them.

I looked at the instructions that came with both parts and I can't find any mention of setting the clocking on the flanges and the need to install and stake the screws. Didn't find it on the Andair web page, either. If someone is able to find it, please post a link on this thread.

This thread came along just in time for me! Maybe I would have discovered this the first time I tested the aux fuel pump. But maybe I would have discovered it at a much less convenient time.

I wonder what else I'm forgetting....
 
I checked my gas selector with a mirror. Two sides are staked, one isn't, and I don't know if there is a plate on the opposite side........yet. I'll check the instructions for that. At least the one side is easy to get to, and the opposite side can be done by removing the seat pans. I figure the staked parts must have been factory, since I don't remember doing it. However, the unstaked screws are still tight. In the meantime, it's always worthwhile that items such as these come up on this forum. Thanks to this forum, I didn't install my outside temp probes in the NACA intakes, and get readings of 6 degrees higher.... like two others I know. :) Yes, this forum is worth it!

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Back
Top