Section 18 Fuel Tanks

 

RV14 Build October

Fuel Tanks

To recap. My left wing fuel tanks was leaking when I tested it. I determined it was leaking from between the skin of the Aft inboard tank rib and the VA-141 fuel flange.

Testing the tank.

Leaking.

After talking with Vans they had me ship it back to them and they performed the repair. I received the tank back relatively quickly and tested it again just to be sure.

Matt made a shipping crate out of the crate the wing parts came in, nice to recycle!

The repair patch Van's had to cut and install into the tank.

Not a great picture, but I endescoped the vA-141 flange to see the repair and it looks like they added more sealant around it.

The tank tested well and Liz and I went to install it into the wing. Before I did I was reading in the plans and noticed the wing walk gap is dimpled but the holes in the tank attach bracket aren't. I spoke with Vans and they are supposed to be countersunk , but its not in the plans at all.

Quick countersinking while testing the tank.

There is a lot of screws and torquing the AN3 bolts takes a while, especially when you don't set the torque wrench correctly and strip 2 of the AN3 bolts. But we did it and finally got a working tank installed and reinstalled the push rod.

I got smart this time and installed the torque tube while installing the tank. It is WAY easier this way. I can move the torque tube up and down enough if I take out 1 set of bolts to install any washers that I might need.

This is where things took a nasty turn. I was using a ratchet strap to hold 1 end of the wing in the air while removing the work bench so we could put the wing back into the cradle and the ratchet strap unhooked itself and the wing dropped about 4 feet. The newly repaired and installed tank took most of the impact with the lower arm of the tank attach bracket assembly absorbing most of it.

Obviously my hart dropped with the wing and part of my soul died it felt like. But we removed the tank to inspect it and the wing. Thankfully the tank took everything and the wing looks undamaged. I was able to bend the flange back into alignment where the wing walk skin matched up.

There was 1 rivet in the corner that I was worried about so I drilled it out and re did it. I also added some preseal under the flange before riveting and then sealed the whole area.

After the proseal dried I tested again.......and it leaks. When the flange bend it separated the seal between itself and the skin.

For more on this saga look for the fuel tank repair post.

Fuel Tank 8.5 Hours