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Had to pick between a $45 seal and a $350 actuator on a 737 flap job
I was working on a 737 flap issue last Tuesday (the inboard trailing edge was acting up). The book pointed at either a drive seal or the whole actuator assembly. I went with the $45 seal first because one guy at the shop swore he fixed the same issue that way. Turned out he was right, it saved the airline $300 and I had the bird back in service by 3pm. Has anyone else saved a big repair with a small part like that?
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carr.elliot1mo agoMost Upvoted
You saved 300 bucks and got a plane back in the air by 3 PM. That's a good day, no doubt. But I think you got lucky. The book had two options for a reason. The seal is a wear item, sure, but if the actuator was actually on its way out, you would have been doing the same job twice in a month. A couple hours of labor and a second seal would eat up that 300 bucks real quick. Not to mention the scheduling headache of pulling the bird again. I've seen guys chase cheap parts and turn a one hour fix into a whole weekend. Sometimes the expensive part is the smart part.
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sandraflores1mo ago
Read a story once about a guy who swapped out a perfectly good actuator and cursed himself for weeks.
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verawhite1mo ago
He's got a point about the book having two options for a reason. But is chasing that last 300 bucks really worth the headache of a double teardown? I've seen guys turn a simple seal job into a whole weekend project because they refused to spend an extra hour on the front end. Sometimes you pay now or you pay later, and later usually costs more in time and frustration. Not every cheap part is a trap, but it's a gamble every time.
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