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Three days on a toilet valve leak in a CRJ-900 tail cone that turned out to be a bad O-ring
Had a recurrent leak on the aft toilet drain valve in a CRJ-900 last month. Pulled the panel, replaced the whole valve assembly, still leaked. Tested it again, still leaked. Ended up spending three days off and on chasing it between other jobs. Finally found a hairline crack in the O-ring groove on the fitting itself. Five cent part, three days of labor. Anyone else ever have a simple seal job turn into a nightmare?
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kim.emma1mo ago
Ninety nine percent of the time, an O-ring is an O-ring and you just replace it and move on. Sounds like you got fixated on the O-ring and missed checking the actual metal part it seats into. I've seen guys spin their wheels for a full shift chasing an R&R on a valve when the real problem was a burr on the mating flange from a previous over-torque. Maybe the first replacement was fine and you just needed to clean the groove with a pick and a rag. Three days is a lot of labor to spend on a part that probably failed because someone before you was careless.
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angelaellis1mo ago
Three days on an O-ring? That's a bit much unless you're getting paid by the hour. Nobody's checking for burrs or grooves unless the first two replacements popped right off. Most of the time you just swap it and move on, and it's fine. Is it really that deep to overanalyze a rubber ring?
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