Inspecting and Cleaning Andair Fuel Filter

[sglynn]

Don't you need to be able to inspect an in-line fuel flow filter for regular maintenance? I'm installing the Andair Fuel Pump and in-line filter. And the filter is cleanable, but how do you inspect it? How do you know if it gets clogged? Or do you just take it apart and clean it every 100 hours and forget inspecting it?

thanks

[sglynn]

Asking again. How do you inspect the Andair fuel filter? How often? Annually? I had a Tech Review of my 7A today and this was his number one concern.

[Wunderon]

not sure on the Andair but my Airflow Performance filter has inspection and cleaning instructions on their website.

They say after 5-10 hrs then annually unless suspected contamination.

[BJohnson]

I check it at each annual. I pull the pump and filter from the plane. Then remove the safety wire from the one end. The whole filter body can then be unscrewed from the fitting still attached to the pump. Alternatively, you could just undo the inlet fuel line, remove the safety wire and unscrew the filter, leaving the pump in the plane.

Referring to the linked page below, the end of the filter assembly closest to the pump has a series of holes around the perimeter. It is through those holes that the safety wire is installed. Be careful of the o-ring on the end that unscrews from the filter body. Pretty simple really.

http://http://www.andair.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/RV7_installation.pdf

[RV7A Flyer]

You should be able to unscrew the filter from the pump, then do as stated and remove the safety wire and unscrew one end. Ha. My filter has apparently welded itself to the pump, and I don't want to tear it up trying to unscrew it, so now I just take the whole thing out, pump and all, and do the inspection.

I may try the trick of leaving it in the plane and undoing it, if there's room given the line from the selector valve to the pump is pretty close.

It's a PITA, so just make sure you don't do whatever I did to overtighten the filter to the pump.

That said, I really like the Andair pump and selector valve. The pump is small, work like a charm, and let me cut down the height of the housing considerably.

[Norcalrv7]

I inspected my prefilter after a few hours and found nothing, now I look at it annually.

Caleb