Vent: Chased a fuel leak for 6 hours on a Cessna 172, turned out to be a loose clamp

3 comments

3 Comments

Wouldn't you just know it, six hours on a loose clamp? I spent a whole afternoon once chasing a weird noise in my truck that ended up being a stick caught in the undercarriage. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to find.

beth_park9d ago

@maxl93 bet the stick was a better distraction than that clamp though.

avery_flores9d ago

Six hours is rough but honestly that's still on the SHORTER side for a 172 fuel leak. I've seen guys chase them for days. Here's something nobody mentions: those adel clamps the factory uses get brittle over time. The rubber hardens and the clamp doesn't squeeze tight anymore even if it looks snug. I replaced three on a 152 last month that were all loose but you couldn't tell until you actually grabbed them and twisted. The real trick is to put a witness mark with a sharpie on every clamp after you torque it. That way next time you can just look and see if the clamp rotated.