Fuel tank rivet leak

[algrajek]

I got my fuel tanks sealed and foud one rivet in each tank has a leak. I have searched the forum but can't find anythin specific.
Any way of sealing these rivets without cutting into the tank?
Thanks
Al "Nordo" Grajek

[frankh]

Ya thats about it unfortunately...Cut a hole in the rear baffle, stop the leak with proseal from the inside and put a patch on.

Frank

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Van's recommends green (self-wicking) loctite for the occasional rivet leak. It helps if you put a little vacuum pressure in the tank to help suck it in. I'd try this before cutting into the tank.

[scard]

Lets just reiterate that if you decide to pull a vacuum on the tank, keep it very, very little. That tank has a lot of skin area and is surprisingly easy to collapse with negative pressure.

[erich weaver]

There is a fair amount of info on this in the archives - search on "weeping rivet".

The Loctite method appears to work successfully for very small leaks. I used it recently (so far so good). As previously cautioned - keep the vacuum low, around 13 inches of water. You can set up a simple manometer off of the vent line to measure this, as described in one of the archived eaerlier posts on this subject.

erich

[fliier]

I used the green Loctite method back in 2003 when I discovered a weeping rivet. I completely drained the tank, put a VERY small vacuum on it with a hand pump attached to the fuel vent, and applied the sealant. The hand pump I used was a $12 fuel pump from the local auto parts store. I did remove paint from the rivet before applying the loctite.

I haven't had a problem in the intervening 5 years.

John Allen

[Geico266]

I've also used the loc tite leaking rivit fix with mixed results, but it did work on over 1/2 of the rivits I have tried it on.

Good luck. Keep us informed.

[Jamie]

Where is the leaking rivet? I had a leaking rivet on the rear baffle. The leak was discovered after final assembly. I drilled out the rivet, vacummed the rivet out through the wing root...shoved a little pro-seal up into the hole, covered a 3/32 pop rivet in pro-seal and pop'd it into place. I have had no leaks so far.

[Jim P]

I used thinned Pro-Seal on a leaking rivet along the leading edge. PS thinned with a little MEK seemed to work well and sucked into the tank after pulling a little vac (not too much though).

[jdmunzell]

I am currently pro-sealing my left fuel tank. I am wondering if I should check for leaks BEFORE closing it up with the rear baffle. With the tank in it's cradle, cant I just fill it up with colored water to look for leaks in rivet areas hard to reach once the tank is closed up???