I've been struggling with water penetration around the main door, and would like to hear some expert opinions and experience on the topic before I decide on how to proceed.
First:
- I tied down outdoors
- I have a large canopy cover
- The cargo door had the problem, I installed the aircraftdoorseals.com product, worked wonderfully.
Symptoms:
In line with the front and rear vertical parts of the main door, but on the floor, wetness can appear (essentially just ahead and behind the co-pilot seat, along the outside frame). It is much worst if I don't put the canopy cover on and it rains. So I'm quite certain the main door is the entry point. The front is worst, but I think that's because the bottom door edge has an angle forward.
The door has a quarter round rubber seal, 1/4 inch I think it is? It feels too thick to me (My mechanic seems to thin it's standard size). When closing from the outside, I have to put my weight in to it just to latch it at the top. From the inside, I, developped the art of latching it (top latch), but it requires both hands. This is done to put pressure on the rubber seal.
If you look at the depression on the seal, you see that it's better at the top than the bottom. The line eventually "disappears" suggesting there's no or not enough pressure, or it's possitionned wrong, about half way down, on either side. I suspect this is because of the pressure I put at he top to close it, and not because the door doesn't fit the hole right. From the outisde, the door fits the hole quite nicely.
I was going to put some strips of sealing material airframe side to "plug the holes" where the seal in the door doesn't do a good job yestedray, when I noticed a couple of things:
- what I call the car door latch (half way up, on the rear side of the door) doesn't latch! top and bottom do. It might've never worked since I owned it. I adjusted the bit on the frameside to try and make it do so, but it's like at the top, I have to put pressure on it ... I doubt I could ever get it working right from the inside without pulling very hard.
- The adjustable metal bit for the two latches (mid height, the the bottom pin) push into the seal, preventing full closure, or at least making it more complicated. Looks like they stickout and were adjusted as such to match the thick seal.
- If I adjust the bottom pin "in" for a better seal, the mid one remains a problem, and the dor bulges a little bit. that one is particularely problematic ...
- Based on observation at least, the overall shape of the door seems fine. It all lines up with the rest fo the airframe pretty nicesly, except in those spots where I know there's a cause to the deformation. I'm quite confident that the thickness of the seal is the problem, and with a different seal, I think the door would fit the hole just fine.
So I stopped short of putting the airframe-side thin rubber strips. I'm not sold it'd solve the problem (might just displace it), and the tickness problem could get worst.
So, the big questions:
- Is it normal for the to have to put the pressure on the door to close it like that? Or should it close just flush and latch easily? Is my seal too thick?
- Is it common for the airframe side part of the mid-hight latch to dig into the rubber like that? I think it's sticking too far out, but if I slide it inwards, it won't latch.
- Do you have any experience to share with this kind of problem? Any insights?
Based on my experience solving the cargo door, my current plan is to:
- Change the seal for the door mounted aircraftdoorseals.com product
- Adjust the latching to match and give a good seal
- Hope that does it
When I bought the aircraft, I was told the seals were new, and they indeed seemed to be ... but looks like they were too thick, and causing problem, had mold growing in there at some point! Had to pull all the carpeting out and such ... rather unpleasant. Now every strom I wonder if I'm going to find a puddle in the plane the next day.
I tihnk my plan is sound, but I always welcome input from Piper experts, and this job although relatively simple, can be quite labour intensive, so I want to make sure I'm not missing something. Apparently therse kinds of problems are not uncommon ...
Thanks!
First:
- I tied down outdoors
- I have a large canopy cover
- The cargo door had the problem, I installed the aircraftdoorseals.com product, worked wonderfully.
Symptoms:
In line with the front and rear vertical parts of the main door, but on the floor, wetness can appear (essentially just ahead and behind the co-pilot seat, along the outside frame). It is much worst if I don't put the canopy cover on and it rains. So I'm quite certain the main door is the entry point. The front is worst, but I think that's because the bottom door edge has an angle forward.
The door has a quarter round rubber seal, 1/4 inch I think it is? It feels too thick to me (My mechanic seems to thin it's standard size). When closing from the outside, I have to put my weight in to it just to latch it at the top. From the inside, I, developped the art of latching it (top latch), but it requires both hands. This is done to put pressure on the rubber seal.
If you look at the depression on the seal, you see that it's better at the top than the bottom. The line eventually "disappears" suggesting there's no or not enough pressure, or it's possitionned wrong, about half way down, on either side. I suspect this is because of the pressure I put at he top to close it, and not because the door doesn't fit the hole right. From the outisde, the door fits the hole quite nicely.
I was going to put some strips of sealing material airframe side to "plug the holes" where the seal in the door doesn't do a good job yestedray, when I noticed a couple of things:
- what I call the car door latch (half way up, on the rear side of the door) doesn't latch! top and bottom do. It might've never worked since I owned it. I adjusted the bit on the frameside to try and make it do so, but it's like at the top, I have to put pressure on it ... I doubt I could ever get it working right from the inside without pulling very hard.
- The adjustable metal bit for the two latches (mid height, the the bottom pin) push into the seal, preventing full closure, or at least making it more complicated. Looks like they stickout and were adjusted as such to match the thick seal.
- If I adjust the bottom pin "in" for a better seal, the mid one remains a problem, and the dor bulges a little bit. that one is particularely problematic ...
- Based on observation at least, the overall shape of the door seems fine. It all lines up with the rest fo the airframe pretty nicesly, except in those spots where I know there's a cause to the deformation. I'm quite confident that the thickness of the seal is the problem, and with a different seal, I think the door would fit the hole just fine.
So I stopped short of putting the airframe-side thin rubber strips. I'm not sold it'd solve the problem (might just displace it), and the tickness problem could get worst.
So, the big questions:
- Is it normal for the to have to put the pressure on the door to close it like that? Or should it close just flush and latch easily? Is my seal too thick?
- Is it common for the airframe side part of the mid-hight latch to dig into the rubber like that? I think it's sticking too far out, but if I slide it inwards, it won't latch.
- Do you have any experience to share with this kind of problem? Any insights?
Based on my experience solving the cargo door, my current plan is to:
- Change the seal for the door mounted aircraftdoorseals.com product
- Adjust the latching to match and give a good seal
- Hope that does it
When I bought the aircraft, I was told the seals were new, and they indeed seemed to be ... but looks like they were too thick, and causing problem, had mold growing in there at some point! Had to pull all the carpeting out and such ... rather unpleasant. Now every strom I wonder if I'm going to find a puddle in the plane the next day.
I tihnk my plan is sound, but I always welcome input from Piper experts, and this job although relatively simple, can be quite labour intensive, so I want to make sure I'm not missing something. Apparently therse kinds of problems are not uncommon ...
Thanks!
