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Anyone have recommendations for fast-ish fuel tank repairs?

jcarne

Well Known Member
Patron
Hello gents. I did some searching on VAF but didn't find anything. Anyone have a procedure for a relatively fast fuel tank repair? I have to replace the piece of garbage fuel float on my left tank (which requires pulling the tank :mad:).

I'm specifically curious if the Flamemaster B1/2 cures faster than the B2 stuff. The B2 when I was building took anywhere from a week to 2 weeks to cure. Would really not like to be down that long.

Thanks for the help!
 
B 1/2 absolutely cures faster. I used some recently and it fully cured in my hangar in 2 days. The hangar probably varied between 40 and 75 degrees over the 2 days.
 
Warmth is your friend in either flavor. Also you can add more catalyst to speed things along. Did both recently.
 
Anecdotal: when I did my tanks, I inadvertently used too much catalyst when doing one of the access plates. I was worried and asked an A&P friend about it. He just laughed and said, "back when I was fixing tanks on airliners, we always increased the catalyst, otherwise it would be weeks before the plane could get back into service!"

But as I said, anecdotal -- ask your doctor, not for use on aircraft, etc.
 
Why are you pulling the tank for a fuel sender? Totally doable through the wing root. Of course, that doesn’t alleviate your need for a fast setting sealant.
 
Why are you pulling the tank for a fuel sender? Totally doable through the wing root. Of course, that doesn’t alleviate your need for a fast setting sealant.

I have a flop tube in that tank so the sender is in the second bay on the rear baffle. Couldn't have been the right tank with a bad sender... lol
 
Thanks for the replies guys. A couple of days I can live with. I'll order up some B1/2 and mix it a little hot. The bad sender really doesn't bother me at all but I'm going to finish my instrument rating and I need it to be legal for IFR flight.

P.S. Thanks to Eric from Van's for reaching out personally over the phone! That's some customer service!
 
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You must work fast with B1/2

Here is a chart from 3M for the standard products.

POLYSULFIDE SEALANT.jpg
 
As said, keep it warm for faster cure. I see you are in WY and wx is not warm there in March. Maybe use heat lamps?
 
Use cork gasket and Sealube

I replaced my fuel sender and cut out a cork gasket and used sealube on both sides. It isn’t going to leak.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I already ordered some B1/2 and new sender. I can handle a couple days of not flying. Will be doing the repair when it warms up, just need to get an order into Van's as they take awhile right now to ship.

In case anyone is searching in the future with a weird problem know that we are not alone. Found this thread with the exact same problem. Every time I asked someone if they have ever heard of this problem they acted like I was crazy. haha

Long story short, sender works below about 5 gallons and never above, almost like the full is shorting the sender out.
 
Just to update/close this thread out.

Thanks everyone for the tips on the B-1/2 fuel tank sealant. That stuff cured insanely fast while the hangar was at almost 90 degrees. Had fuel back in the tank in only about 24 hours.

As you can see in the second picture the wire was broke where it attached to the through nut. I almost wonder if that was something I did many moons ago while installing the screw. It was still touching ever so slightly which would answer why it would work intermittently.

Anyways, it is fixed now and indicating properly. Thank the 91.205 gods on above so now I can see thy light on my panel indicating fuel quantity; too bad 91.205 doesn't say "look in your tank dumba$$". :rolleyes: Can you tell I really hate that fuel gauges are in 91.205 even though we are trained as pilots not to trust them?

P.S. Yes I know 91.205 doesn't apply to us (depending on your ops lims) for VFR. I had to do this to be IFR legal, checkride coming up soon! :)
 

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Although it's moot now, you can get a sealant called "access hatch" sealant, with the same B codes for cure. This mixes to a rather horrid pink color and is supposed to permit relatively easy hatch removal. I got some, quite some time ago, from skygeek.com.

Dave
 
Although it's moot now, you can get a sealant called "access hatch" sealant, with the same B codes for cure. This mixes to a rather horrid pink color and is supposed to permit relatively easy hatch removal. I got some, quite some time ago, from skygeek.com.

Dave

Interesting, never heard of it Dave. I'll look it up if only to learn at this point.
Thanks for posting.
 
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