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- Aug 21, 2010
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I dropped my plane off for annual on June 1. On July 29, I got it back, almost as good as it was when I dropped it off. 
That's not exactly fair. Here's the story.
One of the things I asked the shop to do was to replace the door seal. During the process, they found cracks on the door that couldn't be repaired, so they acquired another door from a salvage yard and set about making it fit my plane and seal properly.
A jillion hours of labor later, the door fits (mostly) and seals (so I'm told), but one nagging problem they haven't been able to lick is a leak at the top of the door at the upper latch handle penetration.
I wasn't in town when they had that all apart, but my mechanic tells me that they think they know where the water's coming in, but there's no good way to seal it without affecting the latching mechanism(s). Said there's a hole where part of a plastic cam goes through. It's not quite tight enough to seal, but it's too tight to put any sort of a rubber grommet in there and still allow the plastic shaft to move freely.
The whole reason I wanted the door seal replaced was because I knew water was getting through it. I don't just want to trade one leak for another.
Any thoughts from the brain trust?
That's not exactly fair. Here's the story.
One of the things I asked the shop to do was to replace the door seal. During the process, they found cracks on the door that couldn't be repaired, so they acquired another door from a salvage yard and set about making it fit my plane and seal properly.
A jillion hours of labor later, the door fits (mostly) and seals (so I'm told), but one nagging problem they haven't been able to lick is a leak at the top of the door at the upper latch handle penetration.
I wasn't in town when they had that all apart, but my mechanic tells me that they think they know where the water's coming in, but there's no good way to seal it without affecting the latching mechanism(s). Said there's a hole where part of a plastic cam goes through. It's not quite tight enough to seal, but it's too tight to put any sort of a rubber grommet in there and still allow the plastic shaft to move freely.
The whole reason I wanted the door seal replaced was because I knew water was getting through it. I don't just want to trade one leak for another.
Any thoughts from the brain trust?
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