Warning LONG post. ( But might save your life)
Discloser: We are NOT affiliated with Steves in anyway.
We recently had a big problem with an original Piper gascolator, that could have ended horribly, about 30 mins into a flight:
Here is the story:
About a half hour into a flight, all of a sudden I thought I could smell fuel ???? Ok, So my first thought ,was to look at trailing edges for fuel siphoning off top of wing from a gas cap coming off?? Nope...Ruptured tank ?? My 12 still has an original tank on left side....... Within another minute or so the smell got worse and I am now frantically watching down by the fuel selectors, for a leak inside the cabin; but again saw nothing???? Now about then my rear seat passenger, says to me " Hey do you smell fuel ???? Its quite strong here in the back seat". I confirmed that I did ,and felt it was getting worse...........quickly.
Since we were on skis, and we now have 8-12" of ice in most places, around Northern Maine ; we were only about a few minutes from a pond, where I could land. ( You may NOT have all these options; when yours fails) Upon a quick check of the Gascolator, we could see fuel pouring out of the back side of it BIG time. So after a bit of fiddling I was able to slow it down 90% but not compleatly. ( I hand saftey wired directly from the middle of one bail to the other right around the middle of the bowl to make dam sure it could not come out at housing again!)We then TO and flew straight home; where it became apparent that how it was safety wired ,from the back bail wire,,around to front carb line fitting,
then over to other bail, was NOT tight enough from the back baik wire: and in approximately 35 hours, had somehow sliped around that radius corner, then onto the horizontal part of the bail, allowing it to pop out enough, to allowing the bowl to cant enough, to let fuel start to pour out......... Now after a proper inspection; a few things emerged. The bail has been over
tightened so many times over the years it has been bent and bowed ,and shows obvious signs of the ends having been straighten.
The amount of penetration the bail protrudes into the housing( .150 ???) is actually adversely effected if that angle isnt the 90 degrees as it should be. IF you saftey to the front fitting; and as you pull up tight right under the corners of the bail and it was possible in this case; for the safety wire because of the angle to the front fitting to somehow vibrate around that radius and allow the bail to begin to come out.........
Verdict: The design is a 'very poor one' even by Model T or tractor standards.It is almost certain these old bail Gascolators , "would "never be approved" in todays FAA environment. After 70 years of idiots over tightening them,
And bail wires being restraightened many times, they are basically dangerous "junk" at this point in time. If your drain valve is pointed outwards, so you dont have to lift your cowling to drain it,
A huge percentage will weep fuel, just fron pushing sidewise on the drain valve!
Conclusion:
Kolher tryed to address this problem many years ago with a bail system that was made from flat stock that was riveted at the top so it could NOT come out
And only required the tightening nut be saftey wired. You hardly ever see them, as they cost double what these old "mickey mouse" ones were at the time........
The inherent design of a bailess Gascolator that the bowl
is threaded into the housing is " Light Years" BETTER in all ways. Probably 100 times safer??all things considered.Do yourself a big favor; and buy yourself a Steves Gascolator ; before you have the same thing happen to you, that happened to me ! Forget about just loosing just the plane: This could easily end up, with you loosing your life!
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