rocketbob
Well Known Member
Often I find it fascinating how creative people can get in solving problems but overlook the obvious. Seeing how creative people can get in coming up with CNC machined levers to open fuel caps, and not fixing a simple geometry problem, is one of those things. The following mod takes about 5 minutes to do with a scotchbrite wheel. It will allow you to easily open your caps with a fingernail--no fancy schmantzy tools required!
Step 1. Disassemble the cap. Remove the locknut, and unscrew the bottom piece, and pull the lever assembly out of the fuel cap casting.
Step 2. Using your scotchbrite wheel, cut a negative rake aft of the pivot axis, with the forward end just slightly forward of the pivot pin. Then carefully smooth the radius forward of that. It doesn't take much! The angle is exaggerated with the red lines for illustrative purposes.
When you're done you want it to look like this. The negative rake angle and the larger radius working against the wear plate make the cap much easier to operate. It makes the cap snap shut but at the same time makes it easy enough to operate that the cap opens easily with a fingernail. The key is to not overtighten the cap. It does not have to be air tight to keep fuel in and water out. In 11 years of flying my RV and leaving it outside many times in the rain, I never once saw any water in the fuel samples.
Step 1. Disassemble the cap. Remove the locknut, and unscrew the bottom piece, and pull the lever assembly out of the fuel cap casting.
Step 2. Using your scotchbrite wheel, cut a negative rake aft of the pivot axis, with the forward end just slightly forward of the pivot pin. Then carefully smooth the radius forward of that. It doesn't take much! The angle is exaggerated with the red lines for illustrative purposes.
When you're done you want it to look like this. The negative rake angle and the larger radius working against the wear plate make the cap much easier to operate. It makes the cap snap shut but at the same time makes it easy enough to operate that the cap opens easily with a fingernail. The key is to not overtighten the cap. It does not have to be air tight to keep fuel in and water out. In 11 years of flying my RV and leaving it outside many times in the rain, I never once saw any water in the fuel samples.