PZL compass repair - Tom ?

OK, my mechanic says I need a compass.
I told him the mountains haven't hardly moved
at all, but he was unmoved as well.

Tom, were you able to stop yours leaking ?

Enquiring minds want to know,
Thanks,
Best Regards, Dave

Dave,

I've been using a small PZL now for 3 years with no leaks.

It's actually my second one - the first also didn't leak, but the
window got all blurry (UV, moisture, bugs, plants in the liquid?) so I
had to replace it. But it didn't leak either.

I do mount mine a bit differently, against the face of the panel,
without using the supplied mount. Don't know if that makes any
difference.

And it actually came in handy once when the visibility was so bad here
in S IL that I had to fly a compass heading to make it home. Nice to
have to crosscheck the magic boxes.

Kirk

wrote:
Tom, were you able to stop yours leaking ?

Yes. I followed Bumper's advice from a different thread and got some
Loctite Depend 330. I built a fillet around the threaded back and so
far it's holding up. I also made sure to only fill it enough so the
air bubble doesn't show in a normal attitude.

-Tom

Ya gotta love it. My compass needs "Depends".
Thanks !
See ya, Dave

5Z wrote:
wrote:
Tom, were you able to stop yours leaking ?

Yes. I followed Bumper's advice from a different thread and got some
Loctite Depend 330. I built a fillet around the threaded back and so
far it's holding up. I also made sure to only fill it enough so the
air bubble doesn't show in a normal attitude.

-Tom

Also, what's the correct fluid ?
To avoid fogging the window or worse ?
Thanks Tom !

A great memory: Vaunted glider-guider demonstrating
instruments to Dave and friends in our infancy:

"Here lads is how you how you top off a compass.
Make sure you've got the right type of fluid. Here
we use type XYZ, carefully filling with a syringe".

Hard to recall which was more amazing - the
numbers gently floating off the compass ball
more or less intact like some weird power-point
animation, or the look on said
vaunted glider-guider's face...

Remember Todd - you were there, right ?

5Z wrote:
wrote:
Tom, were you able to stop yours leaking ?

Yes. I followed Bumper's advice from a different thread and got some
Loctite Depend 330. I built a fillet around the threaded back and so
far it's holding up. I also made sure to only fill it enough so the
air bubble doesn't show in a normal attitude.

-Tom

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
wrote:

Hard to recall which was more amazing - the
numbers gently floating off the compass ball
more or less intact like some weird power-point
animation, or the look on said
vaunted glider-guider's face...

Remember Todd - you were there, right ?

Yes, a cherished memory, but somewhat before Power-Point
animations. IIRC, at that time, we were still sneaking in
and using the PDP-11 to play spacewar.

When I was learning to fly gliders, I was sneaking in and playing
spacewar on the PDP-1 it was originally created on 8^)

wrote:
Also, what's the correct fluid ?
To avoid fogging the window or worse ?

I used compass fluid ordered from Aircraft Spruce:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo.../repairkit.php

Still have most of the quart left after filling the compass several
times, so pint should do ya!

-Tom

Yup, certainly before power-point but I couldn't
figure out how else to describe that effect.
I was placing spacewar on an Imlac graphics
system, IIRC predates PDP-11 but later
than the PDP-1.

We're turning into old farts.

See ya, Dave

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
wrote:

Hard to recall which was more amazing - the
numbers gently floating off the compass ball
more or less intact like some weird power-point
animation, or the look on said
vaunted glider-guider's face...

Remember Todd - you were there, right ?

Yes, a cherished memory, but somewhat before Power-Point
animations. IIRC, at that time, we were still sneaking in
and using the PDP-11 to play spacewar.
--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

Hi Tom - Two more questions:

Yours was definitely leaking out the threads
in the back ?

Loctite 330 costs more than our gliders.
From the Loctite product data it looks like
good-ole Loctite 243 is more appropriate
in any case - What am I missing here ?

Thanks for the help !
Best Regards, Dave


5Z wrote:
wrote:
Tom, were you able to stop yours leaking ?

Yes. I followed Bumper's advice from a different thread and got some
Loctite Depend 330. I built a fillet around the threaded back and so
far it's holding up. I also made sure to only fill it enough so the
air bubble doesn't show in a normal attitude.

-Tom

wrote:
Hi Tom - Two more questions:

Yours was definitely leaking out the threads
in the back ?

Yes. I'd put it on the dash of the car on a paper towel and let the
winter sun heat it up, then look for damp spots. Tried to figure out
some kind of tool to open it up and look for O ring to replace, etc,
but all attempts at opening failed, as I didn't want to break it.

Loctite 330 costs more than our gliders.
From the Loctite product data it looks like
good-ole Loctite 243 is more appropriate
in any case - What am I missing here ?

Probably any decent epoxy stuff will do the trick. Bumper's into
exotic tools & such...

I roughed up the gap with a Moto-Tool first.

-Tom