- Joined
- Mar 14, 2019
- Messages
- 315
- Reaction score
- 83
My wife & I flew the Lance to Bryce Canyon in Utah last week to see the National Park. It was fantastic! Topped the tanks the night before departure & when we got to the plane in the morning the temperature was rising from a 5 deg. f low & fuel was dripping from the wings. Bummer! I opened some covers & could see that it was wet around the rubber hose couplings that are part of the tank interconnects. Particularly the smaller ones that connect the top the tanks that are vents but full of fuel when the tanks are full. Was able to get a screw driver on some of the hose clamps & the dripping stopped or at least slowed way down. I think the extreme cold caused the aluminum tubes to shrink allowing a leak to start. Made the trip home fine keeping a closer eye than usual on the fuel gauges.
Investigated some today & I think it may be time to replace the rubber couplings. My question is can these be removed & replaced without removing the tanks. It looks like it may be a possibility but I can tell it will be a ***** if it can be done at all. Airward Inc. sells the parts but I see nothing on their website about their parts being TSO'd and the rubber couplings they sell don't look the same as the Piper parts which cost mucho more. Any advise is much appreciated. Thanks!
David
Investigated some today & I think it may be time to replace the rubber couplings. My question is can these be removed & replaced without removing the tanks. It looks like it may be a possibility but I can tell it will be a ***** if it can be done at all. Airward Inc. sells the parts but I see nothing on their website about their parts being TSO'd and the rubber couplings they sell don't look the same as the Piper parts which cost mucho more. Any advise is much appreciated. Thanks!
David