On Oct 9, 5:44*am, wrote:
On Oct 9, 7:21*am, wladkummer76 wrote:


This is consistent with failure of the bellows that seals this area.
M&H will have part and installation information.
UH

We had a customer ask us to look into his Ventus leak in the
springtime. The only access for replacing a bellows is to cut a
hole in the wing, which we did.

Turns out the bellows was fine.
The silly part is the 'never-anticipated-for maintenance' design.
The bellows is installed on a brass actuator rod, which has to
be disassembled from the inner mount (tip end) with a roll-pin
style keeper outboard of the suspension post.
The bellows is slipped over some looks-like-typical wing tape
lapped around the brass pushrod to size it out and provide a
compression seat for the hose clamp which tightens and fixes
the bellows rootend in position. Water can leak
under/through the tape on the rod. Water could leak
through a perforated bellows.

Water can also leak through the twenty year old, now rusted,
iron sleeve that is set in the root rib, which had become
transparent when the brass rod was removed.
Can you imagine tapping out the remaining rusty material
and machining an inner sleeve of brass material to seat/adhere
in the root rib? We feel our leakage was through that iron
sleeve, not from the bellows which we pressure checked as sound.

Then after dump reassembly, you have a nice 12 inch or
so hole to patch in your (carbon) skin, and refinish to match.
So a leaky "bellows" is not a small item of consideration
in either cost or time.

Best wishes,

Cindy B
www.caracole-soaring.com