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John, I had a simialr situation with the header tank not filling up within the last coupel weeks. At annual, the fuel pump was replaced due to corrision and nasty looking gummy stuff internally on the lever (engine) side. During the flight to my home base, the sight glass would stay at half glass. For the past year it was always up to 95%. Knowing it wasn't what it useto be, I kept an eye on it for a couple more short local flights. Seemed to stay at 50%. ?? During the holidays, another flight on a blue sky great Michigan day, 40+ degrees, I topped the wing tanks at my mechanics field, GSH, and decided to head east with a climb through 3500ft to 5500 and deciced to do a 180 and head West and continue climbing to 6500ft. Leveled off at 6500 and the fuel indicator dissapeard at the bottom of the glass tube. Pucker factor indeed. I was in an area I've flown through many times, I could see SMD 15 miles away, but I knew a grass strip at a farm was somewhere below me, yep about 3 miles south. Not knowing how much fuel was in the header tank and evidently not pumping fuel from the wing tanks, I decided to put it down on the grass strip, pulled carb heat and reduced throttle to conserve what ever fuel was left. I circled in a decent keeping the grass strip in sight and reach, set up for a pattern approch on the 18 runway which was the longest. Landed ok, a little high and fast with the engine still runnng. The field was muddy (with a dip in the center of about 7 feet) and I used it all. The GPS indicated I landed there twice. The owner of the field was just leaving in his car when I stopped. I explained my situation, he gave me 3 gal gas from a tank on the field, as his tank was about out. It did not fill the tank, so I figure there was 1-2 gallons left in the header tank when I landed. Mud from nose wheel to tail, even on the rudders. Many thanks to Jack, 6631W I departed the same runway on 36 this time due to a very soft field and wires at the end of 18. I took off and it took every bit of the runway, circled with the field in sight to 3000ft, and headed back to GSH. We looked things over, thinking it was an air leak or restriction, pulled the hoses off the pump, blew through them back to the wing and header tank. Reinstalling them, we shoved the hoses further on the fittings and made sure the clamps were on the tube part and not on the puffed up ends of the fittings. Other than that we found nothing. I topped off all three tanks and headed to EKM, Still a clear day, I flew for another hour and the indicator never dropped below 95%. End of story?, not quite, while doing a few T & G's, on base the indicator would go to 100%, fuel film would creep up around the inside of the glass and it would spew out the hole in the cap, which faced forward, on to the windshield. I did alot of searching on the Archives for similar problems and dicided to put new gaskets on the caps. I could not find any rubber ones locally, and ordered 3 cork ones from Univair. Put them on today and flew for an hour in some really bumpy air. The guage stayed at 95% (or there abouts), and I did four landings without the guage hitting the top of the glass guage and no fuel on the windshield. It seems like the problem is gone, but I will have to do some more flying to convence myself of that. ( I'm not positive the orfice restrictor is on the output of the fuel pump or not. I'm not sure there are markings on the outside of it.) If I learn more, I let you know. (Hopefully I won't have a story to tell next time.) Cal 3988H ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers-tech/
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