Captain Avgas
Well Known Member
A soap film solution check of my left fuel tank has revealed a small leak at the join between the end rib and the rear baffle at the outboard end of the tank. Please see the photo in which I have highlighted the location in red. It's right under the flange of the end Z bracket.
Does anybody have any good ideas on how to repair this leak in this location. Obviously it's at the far end of the tank from the inboard inspection port so no chance of access from that end.
The archives suggest that some builders use green loctite and use a vacuum inside the tank to draw the loctitite into the fissure from the outside. I could try that but I'm thinking I'd like a 'proseal' solution to the problem to ensure longevity.
I could remove some of the universal rivets that fasten the end rib flange to the rear baffle to the z-bracket but I'm concerned that by levering open the gap to get some proseal in there I could do more damage to the seal in adjacent locations.
Tackling it from the inside would mean installing a new access port in the rear baffle....quite lot of work with the possibility of getting swarf inside the tank.
Does anybody have any good ideas on how to repair this leak in this location. Obviously it's at the far end of the tank from the inboard inspection port so no chance of access from that end.
The archives suggest that some builders use green loctite and use a vacuum inside the tank to draw the loctitite into the fissure from the outside. I could try that but I'm thinking I'd like a 'proseal' solution to the problem to ensure longevity.
I could remove some of the universal rivets that fasten the end rib flange to the rear baffle to the z-bracket but I'm concerned that by levering open the gap to get some proseal in there I could do more damage to the seal in adjacent locations.
Tackling it from the inside would mean installing a new access port in the rear baffle....quite lot of work with the possibility of getting swarf inside the tank.