REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak

Ron Brown romott at roadrunner.com
Wed Oct 31 17:45:45 CDT 2007


And you don't need to keep the reservoir full.  It only needs to be half full. I have been flying mine that way for 4 years, 360 hours, and no leaks.  The fluid in the reservoir will go up by the volume of the piston rods.  Not very much.

Ron 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chuck Jensen 
  To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 2:54 PM
  Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak


  Larry,

  You really put the spot on the dot there.  I had the plane up on the jacks recycling the gear and intended to add fluid with the gear up.  Now that I rethink the chain of events, I believe I had one of those oops! moments.  The hill of knowledge is a long, steep climb....especially when we keep slipping backwards.

  Chuck Jensen 

  [Chuck Jensen]  -----Original Message-----
  From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On Behalf Of Laurence Coen
  Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:48 PM
  To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
  Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak


  Chuck,

  Another thing to consider is my making the mistake of adding fluid with the gear down.  The fluid level increases in the reservoir when the gear comes up and runs out the vent. Oops!  It made a mess that didn't have to happen.

  Larry Coen 
  N136LC
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Rene Dugas 
    To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list' 
    Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:33 AM
    Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Hydraulic Leak


    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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