What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Kinky Stuff

DanH

Legacy Member
Mentor
From my hangar neighbor's light sport. I noticed a short hose with an iffy radius. Sure enough, remove the firesleeve, and...

Even if it doesn't kink when new, over time a rubber hose will tend to collapse and kink if bent to near minimum radius. Give yourself some latitude when building.

Yeah, the wire clamp isn't great either.
.
 

Attachments

  • Kinky.jpg
    Kinky.jpg
    109.9 KB · Views: 162
Them hoses.........

From my hangar neighbor's light sport. I noticed a short hose with an iffy radius. Sure enough, remove the firesleeve, and...
Even if it doesn't kink when new, over time a rubber hose will tend to collapse and kink if bent to near minimum radius. Give yourself some latitude when building.
Yeah, the wire clamp isn't great either.
.

Well, there weas nothing was good about that except that it was found! Hoses are....kind of ...important! At least it was firesleved! But covering a potential cause of badness.....

Do you know how old that hose was? Older hoses (7-10 years) tend to start to break down. Sometimes the outside can look great but the inside is coming apart. I recently replaced a fuel line on the Cub that looked great on the outside but was cracking pretty badly on the inside. And probably less than 10 years old! I went through and replaced all of the rubber hoses and blasted out the entire fuel system.

I am replacing all of my firewall forward (and brake) hoses on SuzieQ. Some of them looked great but were pretty stiff. None coming apart internally.....yet.....
 
Rubber hose without either internal or external support, will kink if overbent. Probably would have been ok with an external support braid, like a 701 style or imposter hose, or several aftermarket supports. Most LSA aircraft do not have the higher quality hose assemblies due to costs involved. At the same time, inferior liner materials can be affected by the chemicals in the fuels today-whether mogas or avgas- so choose carefully. Teflon, while more expensive, eliminates that issue.

Tom
 
@Tom

You would/wouldn't have considered incorporating (at least part of) the bend in the fitting?
 
Just found this during my Bucker CI. The “return” line from the Christen ball valve appears to have become “egg shaped” in cross section at the center of the bend. I haven’t taken it out to investigate what type of hose is under the fire leave.
Good news is even if the hose wouldn’t pass oil, it’s all good until you sustain inverted flight.
Tom - expect a pic thru email. This hose has a 90 deg. fitting in the Christen end and a 45 deg. adjustable on the sump.
 
Scott---maybe, depending on what the hose had to route around. Sometimes a loop is better than a straight line with angled hose ends.

Tom
 
Back
Top