New gascolator installed

Beyond being cheaper than UPS or FedEx, using the US Postal Service to have parts delivered offers an additional bonus: Saturday delivery at no extra charge. As I was pulling in the driveway on my return from Sears, where I had just purchased two expensive 3/16" drill bits in support of tomorrow's scheduled installation of the new EGT gauge (expensive, I believe, due to them being hand-milled from 100% unaffordium. There are some better ones made out of unobtainium, but of course they were out of those. They always are.), the mail delivery person was attempting to squeeze a 1 sq. ft. box into my 15/16 sq. ft. mailbox. Since I knew it had to be my long-awaited gascolator, I retrieved the box directly from the deliverer, foregoing my normal entertainment of sitting behind the truck enjoying the hilarity of the futile attempts to cram an oversize package into my mailbox. Saved for another day, that.

No time like the present to brave the 31F ambient, 28 wind chill and get the new part installed, so off to the hangar it was. I had anticipated a fairly expeditious installation since I saw no compelling reason to remove the existing AN fittings from the top part of the old unit; it was only the bottom part that needed replacing. A couple of things convinced me to go the whole hog, though. First, the top part of the new unit is much better looking than the old:


On the left, old and mangled. On the right, new and (should I? I will!) fangled.

The other factor was that I noticed that the fittings in the old one were on the wrong sides. The fitting where the fuel was coming in from the fuel line is plainly marked 'out', while the fitting that previously had the line going up to the engine mounted fuel pump is marked 'in.' I can tell this by the direction of the top, 90 degree fitting where the primer line was attached:



Granted, I could have simply turned the primer fitting an additional 180 degrees to get it on the other side, but see reason #1 above, and consider that this entire operation was the result of a previous application of the JOMT methodology.

The fittings were a bear to get out of the old unit, but eventually everything was all put together and mounted on the plane:





Time for a leak check. Did it leak? Well, yes, of course it did! The drain valve at the bottom of the cup turned out to only be hand tightened, so a quick dose of wrench grease fixed it right up.

And now, simply because I can't help myself, I present old & mangled, new & fangled, and temptingly dangled:


No, I won't blame you for never coming back after that one!