REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak

Tue Oct 30 17:33:07 CDT 2007

Chuck,

I'm not sure if this will be helpful but I tracked an occasional leak of
hydraulic fluid that I finally traced to the reservoir.  I turned out
there is an O ring that shrinks and does not seal against the pump
housing and mine would leak on steep climb outs and on steep turns (not
perfectly coordinated).  I removed the pump and found a small sleeve in
the bolt that  holds the reservoir on.  I replaced the reservoir, the O
ring and shortened the sleeve so it applies more pressure to the
reservoir when the bolt is tightened and no more leak.  Before finding
this I replaced the seals in the nose gear cylinder three times and the
nose gear doors once.  It was the O ring. 

Rene'

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Chuck Jensen
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:29 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak

I've had a smallish hydraulic leak under the power pack and it appears
that the leak is located just below the service port were the 2 halves
of the reservoir join.  The leakage occurred only while the gear was
being operated (obviously) and stopped, or nearly so, once the level
fell below the joint.  Having no first hand (or second hand for that
matter) experience with the power pack, is there a gasket or seal in
this area that is repairable?

Chuck Jensen 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Jim Agnew
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 5:01 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

True, however since I machine titanium I could have recommended it for
more durability<G>

Jim

James F. Agnew
Jim_Agnew_2 at Yahoo.Com
Tampa, FL
Velocity 173 Elite Aircraft Completed & Flying 

----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck Jensen <cjensen at dts9000.com>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 3:13:13 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

Jim,

That would certainly work too, but way too clean and sophisticated.  No
shade tree mechanic or McGiver component to your solution.  :-)

Chuck Jensen 

 -----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Jim Agnew
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 10:21 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

Or take a piece of aluminum rod or rivet that is a tight fit and drill a
1/16" hole and push the resulting item into the fitting.

Jim

James F. Agnew
Jim_Agnew_2 at Yahoo.Com
Tampa, FL
Velocity 173 Elite Aircraft Completed & Flying 

----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck Jensen <cjensen at dts9000.com>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 10:31:01 AM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

It works. This weekend I took the two little red fuel balls that I
bought from Vance Atkinson, a new chunk of polyurethane hose (ACS) and a
stainless steel scubbing pad (Kroger) and undertook fixing my fuel sight
indicators.  I stuffed the top and bottom 90L fittings with stainless
curly-cues and then cut to length and marked 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 fuel levels
on the new tube with a Sharpie (transferred from the cloudy tube that
was removed).  Attached the tube bottom, dropped in the ball, attached
the top and called it good.

When I leveled the plane and the fuel flowed back into the right tank,
the fuel level as immediately obvious.  A secondary benefit was rocking
the plane resulted in a very muted sloshing in the sight glass...maybe
1/2" up/down.  Prior to packing the fittings with SS curls, the fuel
would slosh up/down 2"-3"--big improvement.

The only follow up suggestion is that it is simply impossible to pack
too many SS curls into the fitting.  No matter how much one packs them,
it will not block off the fuel from the sight tube but will sharply mute
sloshing.  The only word of caution; it's probably not possible to jam
the curls around the 90L of the fitting and into the tank, but use long
curls and good common sense and no problems should be encountered.

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Bob Kuc
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 10:59 PM
To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

You can try mixing a little micro, stick in a BB and you will have your
self
a float.  Make it a tear drop or round and just grind away to the size
you
want.  Add a florescent pigment to the micro and it will shine if you
use an
LED light or any other light. 

Bob Kuc
(727)418-3370

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Tom
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 8:16 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

Thx Chuck, another good suggestion. While I've been playing with this
I've
also had 3 other possible float types submerged in avgas. A shellaced
wooden
bead, another bead with paint, fishing bobbers (little painted suckers
with
hooks (removed), also,  regular cork plus another cork painted. By the
way,
all of these items listed are perfect size--will fit in 3/8 hose but too
large to get stuck in brass fuel fiitings. Both wooden beads sunk by day
3(the paint held up OK). The fishing bobbers started to disintegrate by
day
5 (I thought they were cork but looks now like they were a closed cell
foam). Both regular corks are doing super-even the unpainted one has not
absorbed any gas, swelled or lost any buoyancy. Guess this makes sense
as
many older aircraft had cork floats in the fuel systems. Anyhow, I've
trimmed two corks to the perfect size and have painted them bright
orange. I
will try these out in the sight tubes and check them every day for a
couple
of weeks to make sure there are no issues. Tom
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