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James: It sounds to me like you need to have a good look at the entire fuel
system. Start by checking the two valves, one feeding the fuel pump from the
wing tanks and one feeding the engine from the header tank. Once you have
ascertained that both of the valves are opening completely (I have seen them put
together wrong so they do not fully open (even done it myself)), then check the
lines from the firewall to the pump. (I am assuming you have already cleaned the
pump and replaced the gaskets while properly checking the fuel pump cover
bolt torque). The bottom line (from the bottom fitting) goes to the fitting on
the rear of the pump, which is the inlet. The top line comes from the more
forward fitting on the pump (and should have a restriction in it) which is the
pump discharge. This line comes into the header tank from the rear.
There is another set of lines that come out of the
rear of the fuselage tank, goes into a tee which has two lines that go
to either wing tank. Obviously all of these need to be open and feeding fuel
easily.
The lines from the wing tanks come under the floor
boards to a tee in front of the passenger seat then go forward to just ahead of
the instrument panel where the line goes up to the valve on the right side
panel. Then from the valve out to the fuel pump.
I know you have had all of these out of the plane,
and have most certainly checked them carefully, but it may be worth a second
check.
You should have put new gaskets on the fuel caps
when you had the tanks out to be repaired. Both of the wing tank caps should fit
tightly. It sounds like you may not have enough tension on the springs that
hold the cap down on the one that fuel leaked from, however, if there is some
problem in the lines from the fuel pump, i.e. hooked up backwards, especially if
you do not have the restrictor in the fuel pump line, it is possible that you
could pump fuel out of the header and over-fill the wings.
You did not indicate the serial number of the Alon,
but if it has fuel caps that have vent holes in them, I am assuming you have had
one or more service bulletins installed. I believe that the original wing tank
caps were the thermos bottle type and only the header tank was vented.
I apologize for the disjointed discussion of the
fuel system. I did not discuss the overflow vent for the header tank, but it
should not be the problem.
Lynn Nelsen
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