I dried out the lower tanks and closed up the access hatches. Of course I discovered that there was an interference between the retention ring then the inner part of the nipple fitting inside the tank on the left side where things are pretty tight. Fishing the ring in the tank without dropping it is bad enough, but then fishing it back out is a double pain.


Once sealed, the tanks were pressurized with an extremely sophisticated, NASA inspired pneumatic pressure source. Then all the joints and interfaces were brushed with soapy water to check for bubbles. No bubbles.

With this last set of tasks on the lower tanks, they are ready to install. They can't be final installed, though, until the main transmission is installed. That is now the focus. It has already been fitted once and aligned, so all that's left is to reinstall the plumbing and some final surface prep with Evershield.

Surprisingly those balloons were pretty good. They stayed inflated for 6 days with only the slightest shrinkage. Usually party balloons self-deflate after a day or two.

Tags: FuelSystem