fuel line leak fix
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Antioch,
CA
Posts: 98
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
fuel line leak fix
Recently while at the field I found I had a small hole in one of my fuel lines. I didn't have a spare piece long enough to replace it and had a full day of flying ahead of me. No one else at the field at the time had any either. Then an idea came to me. I got a ball point pen out of my car and pulled it apart, then cut about 1 inch off of end of the ink tube where there was no ink. I then cut the fuel line at the leak and inserted the tube in the fuel line, between the two cut ends. Worked great and I was able to keep flying
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: BONAIRE,
GA
Posts: 1,439
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: fuel line leak fix
Another way would have been to cut a 3/8 inch piece of excess (presuming you had enough excess) and stretch this over the damaged area. Works well. I also use this method to hold the fuel lines onto carb, filters, or tanks. In these cases, I cut 1/4 inch pieces. Needle-nosed pliers work best to stretch the tubing large enough to slip over the fuel line.
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Montreal,
QC, CANADA
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: fuel line leak fix
My muffler pressure line was too short after some crash repairs, but I had already reinstalled the fuel tank in the fuselage. That fuel tank is really incredibly difficult to get in there, so I had absolutely no motivation to take it back out to change the pressure line.
So I did pretty much what you did, except I used some 3/4 inch of spare brass tubing. At first I was about to use some plastic tubing (looks much like the ball-point pen material) that came with the fuel tank, except that I realised the muffler pressure line comes in contact with the engine's head. I don't know if the heat would have been enough to melt the plastic, so I didn't take a chance and used brass instead.
So I did pretty much what you did, except I used some 3/4 inch of spare brass tubing. At first I was about to use some plastic tubing (looks much like the ball-point pen material) that came with the fuel tank, except that I realised the muffler pressure line comes in contact with the engine's head. I don't know if the heat would have been enough to melt the plastic, so I didn't take a chance and used brass instead.
#4
RE: fuel line leak fix
always cary extra filters with me, cut n splicealthough the pen idea is kinda cool, woulda thought that would have torn the fule line even more being hard and kinda sharp...