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Cabin fuel smell today


rbridges

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Well, this is new. My wife and I noticed a fuel smell when entering the pattern.  It was a right downwind. Never noticed it before and didn't notice it on the return flight. Btw, bladders installed maybe 7-8 years ago. 

I was wondering if the right bank on a bumpy day had anything to do with it?  My home airport is left patterns, so I rarely do much right banking, and as I mentioned it was a rather bumpy pattern. 

Someone mentioned the cork gasket by the fuel senders, most likely pilot side. Any suggestions?  Just pondering until I have someone look at it. 

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It is easy to pull the interior panels on the sides just in front of the front seats. The inside senders are right there. If they are leaking you should be able to see the blue stain. If you decide to tighten them, don't overdo it. Could be on either side; equally likely.

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4 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

It is easy to pull the interior panels on the sides just in front of the front seats. The inside senders are right there. If they are leaking you should be able to see the blue stain. If you decide to tighten them, don't overdo it. Could be on either side; equally likely.

Thanks Don!

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If there is only a small weep...it doesn’t take much...and tightening doesn’t solve it, you an coat the leaking area with “fuel lube”. It is a substance similar to petroleum jelly and can actually seal a weep and it is non hardening.

my plane leaked in several areas...one of the hardest to deal with is where the grounding wire is screwed to the flange...it is compressed with a plastic Teflon bushing that also helps to seal.  The compression of the gasket is supposed to force the gasket holes to squeeze around the screw also sealing...but that part won’t work if you have an old gasket...it should help to seal if you coat the threads of the screws with a non hardening permatex.

if you are to do that make sure your gas level in tank is low enough

Edited by larrynimmo
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Here is a picture of the sender installed. Might be helpful to find it. Before I installed the CiES senders (they use a rubber gasket), I would periodically smell fuel in the cockpit (makes you wonder about all those ashtrays in our planes).

5e54563e1c3a06c25cc74c9e6244e6e7.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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7 hours ago, Marauder said:

Here is a picture of the sender installed. Might be helpful to find it. Before I installed the CiES senders (they use a rubber gasket), I would periodically smell fuel in the cockpit (makes you wonder about all those ashtrays in our planes).

5e54563e1c3a06c25cc74c9e6244e6e7.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Don't you have bladders, too?  So, sources of leaks are somewhat limited to a few things?  That's why I'm kinda banking on this being it. 

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8 minutes ago, neilpilot said:

"Visualize the sender"?  What does that mean?

I was able to remove both senders on our 65C, left & right, without seat removal.  

I didn't know if I could inspect the screws without removing the seat.  I can't tell exactly where it's located from the pictures I've seen. 

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Just now, rbridges said:

I didn't know if I could inspect the screws without removing the seat.  I can't tell exactly where it's located from the pictures I've seen. 

Very easy to do....when I slide the seat all the way forward there was amply access to all sender screws.  Not even close to being blocked by the seat frame.

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My M20C got new sender seals back in the day for the same reason...

Removing the side panel the first time revealed a few things...  lots of dirt accumulated in there, and the leak had been going on for a long time...

I learned that the smell of 100LL was parading around as the smell of old airplane... 

Swapping out the old brittle cork seals for new silicone rubber seals was a pretty quick, low cost, minimal effort kind of fix...

There is probably a proper torque to use when tightening the screws. This assures getting it done right before putting everything back...

PP thoughts only, not a mechanic...

Best regards,

-a-

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Thanks to everyone for all the info. The copilot side appears to be the culprit, but I did see the tiniest bit of blue on the pilot side screw heads. I tightened the screws on the copilot side, maybe 1/8-1/4 turn. I cleaned up most of the blue with mineral spirits so I could compare later if necessary. 

IMG_20200101_125751.jpg

IMG_20200101_131403.jpg

IMG_20200101_132011.jpg

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Thanks to everyone for all the info. The copilot side appears to be the culprit, but I did see the tiniest bit of blue on the pilot side screw heads. I tightened the screws on the copilot side, maybe 1/8-1/4 turn. I cleaned up most of the blue with mineral spirits so I could compare later if necessary. 
IMG_20200101_125751.thumb.jpg.200fcda1496249dd827bfe7000d18999.jpg
IMG_20200101_131403.thumb.jpg.496acc508c5ddfeea471ef5c7d2ac043.jpg
IMG_20200101_132011.thumb.jpg.6c34db751aabf764e1e22ddb42335dd2.jpg


That was a decent sized leak. Glad we could help out.


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4 minutes ago, Marauder said:

 


That was a decent sized leak. Glad we could help out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Yeah, I was a little surprised, too. Are the gaskets replaced when bladders are installed or is that an on condition replacement?  I looked back at my emails and it looks like it was 2011 when they were installed. 

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