Working on the second fuel tank, Rv6a. Found a leak where the skin meets the rear baffle. I think the skin was not flat against the baffle flange when it got riveted. My repair idea is to remove four or five rivets, force proseal into the gap and rivet. Is this a viable solution or any one have an alternative.
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Fuel tank leak advice
- Thread starter rwarre
- Start date
Kyle Boatright
Well Known Member
Where along the baffle is the leak? Top, bottom, inboard, outboard? I was able to "flow" the A compound of proseal into a baffle/skin seam in the bay with the filler.
PaulvS
Well Known Member
The most certain way to fix the leak is to apply a bead and fillet of sealant from the inside. If the leak is in the inboard bay then this can be done via the access plate for the fuel sender. For other bays, use the Vans tank repair kit and cut a round hole in the baffle to work through. It's quite easy to do.
Kyle Boatright
Well Known Member
If you can see the leak area through the filler neck, you should be able to seal it without doing surgery. Good luck.
To be sure that I am understanding your issue, you are talking about where the top or bottom skin of the tank lays over the bent flange area of the rear baffle, correct. Usually, a bead of sealant is layed on the skins just fwd of the rivet holes and the baffle is pushed into place, forming the intersection bead. If that is correct, see two possible issues. First, it is that bead that seals and there is not much other sealant in the seam, therefore fuel can leak down the seam area to find other paths. Second, if the skin was not laying well on the flange when you rivetted, that makes a bad joint. Not sure one rivet will make a structural issue, but can leave a hump. Best approach is to remove rear baffle and do it right, but you will want to do that ASAP, as the job gets harder as the sealant cures. Removing the rear baffle is NOT a fun job with fully cured sealant and would probably cut an access hole and repair from the inside if it were just one leak.
Not a believer in repairs to the outside. I have re-sealed 6 tanks in the recent past and many had significant externally applied proseal to address the leaks. Each had very thick blue dye all over them and were still leaking. I suspect that it can be done effectively with the correct prep and applcation, but my experience it that at least some can't execute that effectively. All the repairs I have done were from the inside.
Larry
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Ralph Inkster
Well Known Member
Well, think of it this way - tank is off & easily accessible right now. Is it wise to settle for a stop gap repair attempt now & potentially find a nasty blue stain on your newly painted plane 14 months from now?
Over the years I have had to re-repair many a tank that had stop gap attempts done to them. Including thread locker applied to rivets, sloshing material, non-proseal type sealer applied right over the original sealant, thick layers of sealant slopped on externally, & the worst one had a layer of epoxy resin pored inside across the whole rear baffle... no easy short cut to get a good result. Seriously reconsider the prior posters really good advise!
