Username Protected wrote:
Once the corroded area was found, cut the original tube on either side of the frame. Place an AN nut and collar on the line and flare. Install a -4 Union and then make a filler line to fit between the unions.
Yes, that was considered.
Reasons not to do that were that I would have to replace that line eventually with a "proper" one, and the JetEast guys just don't make lines, so they wouldn't do that kind of work.
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If there isn't any AN parts around many Hydraulic Hose shops, such as Parker Stores, have JIC collars and nuts, as well as the unions in Steel. JIC is the same as the AN standard for the angle of the flare. Another source of these JIC parts is McMaster Carr.
I wasn't aware JIC and AN are compatible, good to know.
In any case, getting the proper AN fittings was trivial to do, could have ordered them from various sources. I considered doing that, and buying tools, just in case the line Textron sent me was wrong or broken. It turned out to be correct, thankfully.
Another option considered at the time was simply capping the line at both ends. It is a high pressure line that runs from the combined output of both engine pumps to the reservoir. At the time, I didn't understand why the reservoir would need a high pressure line.
I've only recently come to learn that the reservoir in my plane is of the "bootstrap" kind where the high pressure line drives a small piston in the reservoir to push on the larger diaphragm.
Attachment:
bootstrap-reservoir-1.png
The purpose of this is to provide enough inlet pressure on the pumps so they don't cavitate. This is about 60 PSI. Without that line supply pressure, the reservoir would only give about 4 PSI inlet pressure to the pumps. Would sealing off that line have worked? Probably, but that's getting way too tricky.
In any case, all the various ways to fix the airplane still required clean up of the leaked fluid which was the nastiest part. Once that was done, putting in the proper line wasn't the hard part.
Amusingly, when I ordered the new proper line, 6517136-72, they had only one in stock. I just checked right now and they say they have exactly one in stock now, too. So they must make it on demand and keep one in inventory.
Mike C.