Hydraulic line blew on me mid-shift yesterday - what a mess

I was working on a 737 in the hangar around 2pm, just doing a routine pressure check on the landing gear system, and BAM - a 3000 psi hydraulic line let go right in my face. Got soaked in Skydrol before I could even blink. Took me 20 minutes to clean up and find the rupture, which was a pinhole leak near a clamp that must have been rubbing for months. I had to order a new line from the parts room and it ate up my whole afternoon. The worst part is the smell of that fluid sticks to your skin for hours. Has anyone else had a line blow like that out of nowhere? How do you get that stuff off your hands faster?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_foster926d ago

Ngl, did you check the clamp alignment before the test?

carter.gavin6d ago

@mary_foster92, I gotta say your question about clamp alignment hits on something bigger. That pinhole leak you mentioned, that's the kind of thing that sneaks up on you. Reminds me of how a loose screw on a cabinet door can rattle for months until it finally falls off and you trip over it. It's like the universe has this rule that small stuff ignored for too long will blow up at the worst time. I bet if we all looked back at the last thing that went wrong, there's probably a little sign we missed weeks ago. Hope you got that new line on without any more surprises.

jamesm386d ago

I had a similar thing happen with a PVC line last summer. I spent a whole afternoon chasing a tiny drip that was coming from a fitting I was sure was tight. Turned out the clamp was sitting just a hair off center, and that was enough to let water sneak by under pressure. After that, I started marking the clamp positions with a silver sharpie before I even tighten them down. It sounds dumb but it gives me a quick visual check before I turn the water back on. Have you ever tried marking the spots like that or do you have another trick?