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An old mechanic told me to stop using brake cleaner on landing gear seals
I was scrubbing hydraulic fluid off a 737 main gear seal and the lead guy grabbed my hand and said 'you're boiling the rubber, rookie.' He showed me the tiny cracks forming and now I only use a rag with hydraulic fluid to wipe them down. Anyone else get chewed out for using the wrong solvent on seals?
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king.stella2mo ago
Boiling the rubber" is a rough way to learn that lesson, I feel for you. I've had a similar scare with a different seal where I used the wrong cleaner and watched it harden right in front of me. Even the most experienced folks sometimes forget how aggressive those solvents can be on certain materials.
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verar212mo ago
Isn't it funny how one little mistake can completely change a part like that? I've been there too, watching something I worked on just go bad in seconds because of the wrong chemical. It's not just beginners who mess this up, experienced folks do it all the time when they're not paying close attention. That hardening you described is brutal, I've had seals turn into brittle plastic on me before and it's so frustrating. You really do have to treat every solvent like it might eat through everything, even the ones you've used a hundred times.
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campbell.tara28d ago
Read an article from some aviation maintenance forum that said brake cleaner literally leeches the plasticizers out of rubber seals. Makes them go from flexible to rock hard in minutes. That mechanic probably saved you a major headache because those cracks you saw just get worse over time. Once a seal loses its flexibility, it's done and you're looking at a leak that could ground the plane. Hydraulic fluid as a cleaner makes perfect sense since it's compatible with the seal material anyway. Learned that same lesson the hard way on a car suspension once, ruined a set of bushings before I figured out what was happening.
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