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One of my Fuel Balls Sank

C-185

C-185

SPONSOR
Nome, Alaska
I checked my fuel tank before a recent flight, full by the touch. Went flying and noticed my bright orange ball at the bottom of my sight gauge. I burned about half of a tank and the ball came up a little. Landed and after tying down the plane the ball was at the proper fuel level. Checked the next day and the ball had sunk again. Some history, I changed this ball less than two years ago when I had the sight gauge apart for cleaning. Do they lose there buoyancy? I have flown cubs for a long time and have never seen it......... Maybe I got some bad balls?
 
C-185 said:
I checked my fuel tank before a recent flight, full by the touch. Went flying and noticed my bright orange ball at the bottom of my sight gauge. I burned about half of a tank and the ball came up a little. Landed and after tying down the plane the ball was at the proper fuel level. Checked the next day and the ball had sunk again. Some history, I changed this ball less than two years ago when I had the sight gauge apart for cleaning. Do they lose there buoyancy? I have flown cubs for a long time and have never seen it......... Maybe I got some bad balls?
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, “bad balls”…….that’s likely to take the conversation in interesting realms.

MTV
 
Happened a lot on the early Legend Cubs. As I recall they would stick. I think we got new gauges. The first service instruction just said to remove the balls and put some white paper behind the sight tube so the fuel could be seen.

It was a while ago. My memory may be sketchy.

Rich
 
Both mine sank within two years .Just usual crap available today.As we are experimental I am going for transparent tubes.Eliminate another possible incident.Will use fuel resistant tubing, being aware the transparency may diminish over time.
 
A couple years ago I refurbished my sight gauges with new gaskets and Univair plastic orange balls. I had read all the horror stories from this sight about gaskets/breaking glass/bad balls etc. Well, within six months my right hand side orange ball started "submarining" like described by the OP. Most of the time that stupid ball is at the bottom, but I do see it at the top or somewhere in between sometimes. Frustrating to go through fixing up all nice and then to not work shortly afterward. The good news is no leaks or broken glass and I can clearly see the fuel level so I don't plan on installing a new ball anytime soon. From my experience and other cub pilots I know, yea this seams to be an regular issue with these cub gauges.
 
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