A couple of days ago after finishing my annual, I went to fuel my Coupe for a couple of high speed taxi test runs. Remember that I have added rudder pedals and removed/repaired the fuselage tank. I started with the fuselage tank with 4 gallons and proceeded to put 5 gallons in each wing tank. As I was returning the fuel nozzel to the fuel pump, I noticed to my horror that fuel was running out the bottom of my airplane.
After pulling the bird away from the fuel pump, I call my A&P for help. With gas cans and drain tubs, he was there in just a couple of minutes. We drained the nose tank. But the fuel kept flowing. At that point I remembered that we had to replaced the rigid fuel line that goes between the two wing tanks. Sure enough, fuel was flowing freely from the t-connector that connects the wing tanks and the fuselage tank. I tightened it, but the fuel kept flowing. After draining the wing tanks and removing the recently replaced fuel line, my A&P discovered the problem. The older fuel line has a different connector than the new one. Many of you probably know this already, but the new connectors have a shoulder that advances the seat above the threads a good bit. With a new fuel connector and an old t-connector, the line will never seat (probably doesn't even touch). So that is one word of caution. The next problem that I had was a failure of the fuel drain valve on one of the wing tanks. I went to shut off the flow to change gas cans and the value and the spring dropped into the funnel in the gas can. If you haven't changed these since you have owned your Ercoupe, you might consider replacing them. I wouldn't like to have failure like that in flight. Both wing tanks would be empty before you would even know what was happening. Shop for the values. I found one place that wanted $49 each, one that wanted half that, and I think Aircraft Spruce sells them for about $13. Thanks. Frank Nelson N51DV - 415C
