In article ,
wrote:
It's right on-par with everything else designed at that point in time.
Exactly the same gascolator is on my dad's 1939 Oliver 60 Row Crop tractor,
except it
has a clear glass bowl. They "ruggedized" it for aircraft useage by using an
aluminum
bowl...

That design is fine on a tractor, but is not so great on an aircraft.
It's amazing what junk some of these aircraft manufacturers used (and
had certificated). They couldn't get away with the glass bowl, but they
did the minimum required to make it work to get the airplane
certificated.



It is and isn't operator error. Many of them (like mine) cannot be easily
seen... it's tucked up within the cowling and is only accessed via a 1" hole.
Also,
you could scan for leaks all you want... if the gascolator has been drained
of all
fuel by sumping to a sample jar, it won't leak even if it's locked open.

It isn't necessary to drain the gascolator completely. In fact, when I
was a student pilot, I was taught to activate the fuel boost pump while
sumping, which would ensure that you couldn't accidentally drain the
gascolator. I think this is overkill and I no longer do this, but it's
probably not bad advice for a student pilot.



I would think you could get the drain with a 90 degree 1/8" NPT elbow and
perhaps a small extension. My plane has a 45 degree on the stock bowl. If
it's PMA'd
for the PA-28, it *should* fit right in. If not it should have approved data
(i.e.
STC or standard AN part via AC43).

I did call and talk to the guy this morning. He said that, in most
cases, the 90 degree fitting and extension usually does the job, but in
some cases, folks have remote mounted the valves. I don't want to
remote mount mine, so I might go take some measurements to make an
initial determination as to whether it will fit.

The bottom line is that if I elect to keep the Piper gascolator, I'm
stuck paying almost as much for just the bail wire as for the entire STC
gascolator unit. I'm sure that you can see why this is of such
interest, and I'm surprised that it hasn't received more attention.



JKG