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Yesterday, while climbing out of the home airport, I noticed what looked like fuel actually running in a steady stream from under the panel on the passenger side, down onto the floor where the passenger’s legs would have been. Thank God I was solo. I shut down everything except the engine and landed ASAP. When I got the airplane on the ground and stabilized, I discovered it was fuel and it looked like it was running down off the line that runs from the firewall to the fuel pressure gauge. I checked the higher connection on the inside of the firewall, and I was able to slightly tighten the nut. But if the problem was caused by a loose connection, I can’t imagine that it would have been loose enough to create a steady stream of leaking fuel. Has this happened to anyone else? I haven’t removed the fuel line yet. It looks like a heavily reenforced line. Ironically, this happened two weeks before the airplane was scheduled to go into the avionics shop for a major panel upgrade. Including a G3X with all the primary engine instruments.

Greetings all... On my last flight I experienced a prop overspeed and an inability to hold an RPM setting in cruise. This points to a sluggish oil pressure building in the prop. We pulled the prop and checked it visually, we pulled the prop governor and checked everything on the engine side of the governor, and then sent the governor out for an inspection, reseal and test. The prop shop said that the inspection didn't reveal any obvious flaws, they hope that the reseal will solve the problem I'm having. While I'm waiting for the governor to come back I'm considering doing the 1462A service instruction for leak testing propeller oil control (the plumbing from the governor to and including the prop.) The problem is that I have not found an economical source for the test plate the service requires; the only source I have found is Aircraft Spruce and they want $2700 for it. So I'm thinking of ordering two, you know, so in case I lose one. Does anyone on the Space happen to have one of these lying around the shop?

Dear all, I topped off both tanks today after an oil change, to take advantage of the lower fuel price at the pump. After flying back to my home base I saw Avgas coming through the screw right next to the door, and if I run a finger on it, it would get wet. Haven’t seen this before, even when topping off, which I do often (no gas at home). The idea of gas on top of the wing, on a plane that lives outside, during summer, scares me a lot. Otherwise I have not had any drop of contamination since I bought the plane in November, except for when I didn’t close the fuel gasket properly (nice lesson learned that day). Is this an easy fix? Should I try to tighten the screw or would that make things worse? It’s an 87’ J by the way. Any other ideas? Thanks!

Well, found the leak and it wasn't hard. Looks to me like the tube is pulled away (...a looong way) from the seat. How did it get that way and how to fix?

I noticed fuel smell in the cockpit last year and after removing the side panel I saw blue stains all around the fuel pick up tube. A new set of rubber gaskets were ordered from mooney and replaced. Almost one year later and after a new interior, this is what I found today...same problem with brand new gaskets. I'm curious if anyone else is having this issue and if so, how did you fix. And by the way, my tanks were resealed by week no more two years ago. And yes, my IA toqued the screws around the gasket per mooney. Thanks

Hi all Discovered a fuel leak coming from what appear to be two screws on a lower panel. Read DMax article and what was available her and have a couple of questions. By DMax article, seems like nut plate cracks are the typical culprit in this circumstance. He says remove a screw, apply sealant to the thread and replace. Wow sounds easy. But this is a Mooney fuel tank system after all. 1) Screws are seized. I don't want to damage them and am afraid of creating new leaks on this panel if I take an impact to them. 2) the panel location is just below the filler cap, so I can get a great visual on the sealant there. Looks like a minuscule crack in the sealant along the nut plate IA is on vacation, so we'll be talking when he returns. What is the group consensus - remove panel and reseal or patch seal from inside? Seems like option 2 would be the good is better than perfect option but I'm hesitant to add layer upon layer of Proseal. Thanks as always Brad

My 68C has developed an oil leak since the last MX worked on the engine. I had him look at it and he tightened a few bolts on the oil pan and called it good. Next morning, the oil continues to seep over night and I cannot find where it is coming from because it looks wet everywhere (mostly from the back side); however, the oil seems to be seeping from a point higher than the oil pan in the back side. Has anyone experienced this before?

I looked through the Mooney forum for this answer but didn't see anything specific. Does anyone know if you fail to top off your fuel tanks (when you hangar or park your plane), does that eventually cause leaks? I spoke with someone at my airport working on their Mooney and they were doing a reseal of their tanks. They mentioned that if you don't keep you plane topped off that the top seal becomes brittle and the seals are more likely to fail and the tanks are more likely to leak. I didn't think keeping the tanks topped off would keep the seals from failing. I assumed that the failure of the seal was due more to age, the seal just becomes old and more brittle, and when the plane is exposed to constant heat (or constant extreme cold) sitting on the ramp, the heat (or cold) eventually dries out the seal and it fails. ( I have also heard hard landings may be a culprit) I keep my Mooney hangared and so far, I have not had any fuel leaks (knock on wood), however, I do not keep it topped off and I don't like to fly with the extra weight when I don't need to. Most of my flights are under 300 miles. I generally keep about 50 gallons in the plane. Also, I have long range tanks. I never top the long range tanks (If I ever topped the long rang tanks it would eat up a lot of my useful load). So on long trips I just put 5 or 10 gallons in each long range tank after the mains are topped off. If topping the tanks off helps make the seals last longer then I guess my long range tanks will go first because I never top them off? So after all that longwinded explanation, does anyone know whether the failure to top the tanks off really leads to early seal failure and, consequently, a fuel leak or is this just an old wives tale? Thanks.