Hi! Phil /Jos
Didn't see Phils original message however a piece of additional info of
my experience with the gauze type finger strainer was twofold.
a) the gauze actually traps any cloth fibres /long hairs and they dangle
inside the strainer (LIKE IN A WASH BASIN OR Bath Plug hole)
In my case simultaneously the trapped fibres suddenly plugged the exit
holes in both the main tank and reserve.
b) however my situation also highlighted another deficiency in that the
hole drilled in the bottom of the strainers was insufficiently deep to
provide a full intersection orifice with the continuing exit pipe of
the connector.
The aforementioned plug once sucked in just stopped all flow. What's
more back blowing of the fuel doesn't rid you of the plug it merely puts
the plug loose in the tubular gauze to do you a repeat first time you
put full power on.
IF you have the connector standing on the outflow pipe and tilted over
off vertical you can drill out the intersection
Regards
Bob Harrison.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of josok
Sent: 23 February 2008 17:59
Subject: Europa-List: Re: Finger Strainers
Hi Phil,
Sorry for the long story that follows :-)
One of the messages mentioning finger strainers was from Bob Harrison.
He had a forced landing once, because the strainers were blocked by
debris and dog hair. At the time i read that message, i was sure there
would not be any hair in my tank. However, a bit later i noticed a dog
hair on the outside of the tank, still in the unmounted cockpit module.
The dog had never been in the workshop. But the tank is so static, that
it pulled the hair from my clothes. Carefully cleaning the tank, i
collected quite a lot of everything, including a lot of lint, from the
surface. That made me think about the usefulness of these strainers,
since there would be gascolator downstream anyway. They will keep small
pebbles and peas from blocking the fuel lines upstream of the
gascolater, and will be blocked by anything like lint. I do not expect
much peas entering the tank. Peas and pebbles are not static. Inspecting
the finger restrainers on a regular bases is so difficult, that it will
probably
lead to no inspection ever. Hence there are no restrainers on my bird.
But then i am not handicapped by PFA.
Regards,
Jos Okhuijsen
Visit - www.EuropaOwners.org
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22/02/2008 18:39
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