Fittings Re-Fitted

After finishing the MLG SB, I had to do one extra thing before being able to refill the brake system with fluid. That one thing was to remove the pedals from the plane, remove the fittings and clean them and re-fit them to the brake cylinders - this time with Bakerseal as sealant.


I was able to remove the pedals with just removing the bearing blocks and not removing the little metal shield that holds the wires off the pedals. That earned me a deep scratch in the powder coating, that I patched up with primer. I will have to protect this and be extra careful when reinserting them into place.
Other than that the pedals came out easier than I had expected. Once they were removed I started on removing the fittings and cleaning the threads from the previously used sealant.
The black rings around the fittings shows the old sealant still in place.


I cleaned the fittings by repeatedly submerging them in MEK and then rubbing off the sealant with a rag and also brushing the threads with a brass brush. Then I dried the fittings inside out, and particularly the threads, with compressed air before applying a thin coat of Bakerseal and reinserting them.
When reinserting, I tightened them with a standard length 3/8" wrench until I felt a strong resistance. Then I used the adjustable wrench of 8" length to turn it at least one more turn until I felt a very strong resistance and got the feeling that I might get stuck going another full turn.



The 45 degree fittings went in much deeper than the 90 degree ones. All in all, the 45 degree fittings were turnable until only one thread showed, while the 90 degree ones show 4 threads.



Comparing this seating depth with what I saw on Dave's blog, I should be save to put them back into the plane now. I certainly do not want to remove them again!