Not sure if there is anything new to the story, but I just wanted to share.
I've always steered away from doing work on the fuel system of my plane (I didn't build it). However with the panel upgrade I had to change some fittings, and then I needed to replace the carb, so I kind of eased into it. Anyway, today I was fixing a tiny seepage in the main fuel line fitting on the carb (probably hadn't tightened the NPT adapter enough when I installed it). This all went fine, but to my surprise when I turned the fuel pump on the first thing I saw was a a small puddle of fuel on the floor.
Turns out that a fitting to the red cube was finger tight! See it on the picture - the fitting is just finger tight and the torque strip is as it was. I've never touched these fittings since they were installed by an A&P during condition inspection a year and a half ago, when all fuel lines were replaced. So it sounds like I was flying for more than a year with a main fuel line fitting just finger tight, and the only thing that prevented it from undoing itself was some tension that the fuel line put on the connection. When I was moving the line away to remove the carb fitting, it probably tugged on the red cube just enough. I checked everything else of course and it was fine, but still I'm not exactly happy about this.
The bottom line I guess is - even if there is a torque strip on something, doesn't mean that it is tight. Better check all of them!
I wonder how often it happens. I remember finding something like this on a rental Arrow a while ago (I think a gascolator was loose).
I've always steered away from doing work on the fuel system of my plane (I didn't build it). However with the panel upgrade I had to change some fittings, and then I needed to replace the carb, so I kind of eased into it. Anyway, today I was fixing a tiny seepage in the main fuel line fitting on the carb (probably hadn't tightened the NPT adapter enough when I installed it). This all went fine, but to my surprise when I turned the fuel pump on the first thing I saw was a a small puddle of fuel on the floor.
Turns out that a fitting to the red cube was finger tight! See it on the picture - the fitting is just finger tight and the torque strip is as it was. I've never touched these fittings since they were installed by an A&P during condition inspection a year and a half ago, when all fuel lines were replaced. So it sounds like I was flying for more than a year with a main fuel line fitting just finger tight, and the only thing that prevented it from undoing itself was some tension that the fuel line put on the connection. When I was moving the line away to remove the carb fitting, it probably tugged on the red cube just enough. I checked everything else of course and it was fine, but still I'm not exactly happy about this.
The bottom line I guess is - even if there is a torque strip on something, doesn't mean that it is tight. Better check all of them!
I wonder how often it happens. I remember finding something like this on a rental Arrow a while ago (I think a gascolator was loose).