Finding a leak on a WTC made easy

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  • subcapt101974
    Lieutenant Commander
    • Feb 2011
    • 102

    Finding a leak on a WTC made easy

    Hi Guys,
    I scoured the forums to see if anyone had a way of finding any leaks on their subdrivers. Trying to locate a leak on a Subdriver can take a long time and be a big pain. I do not know if anyone has tried this so here goes. What I do is remove the inner shrader valve from the Subdriver motor bulkhead and take a syringe(any size will do) and use a piece of tubing between the syringe and the valve and inject enough pressure into the Subdriver so the caps don't pop off. Then I take a house cleaner like Hertel or Spraynine (these work best) and spray the Suddriver all over like the shaft seals, the pushrod seals, end cap orings even inside the ballast where the blow valve is and found that the valve their had a very small leak of gas propel. Where there are bubbles there is a leak. This saves me alot of time. All I have to do is repair the leak.
  • He Who Shall Not Be Named
    Moderator
    • Aug 2008
    • 12256

    #2
    That's how we used to chase air-leaks in Diver gas systems. Soapy water was the leak-check fluid of choice, applied with a big paint-brush or foxtail.

    Good stuff, subcapt101974. Thanks for sharing.

    David
    Who is John Galt?

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    • Subculture
      Admiral
      • Feb 2009
      • 2119

      #3
      Standard practice for finding gas leaks- bit of soapy suds in water, you can also spray it on with an atomiser.

      Another system I use on small enclosure is to submerge a capsule/cylinder in warm water, this expands the air inside and it will make it's way out past any leaks.

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      • RCSubGuy
        Welcome to my underwater realm!
        • Aug 2009
        • 1768

        #4
        A neat trick that Greg Sharpe passed along to me was to run a bit of rubber tubing out the motor bulkhead. Into that you place the receiver antenna, which means that we don't need to cut and splice it, risking wrong lengths. In the end of the tubing you put a little brass plug made from rod. During normal running you just tuck the sleeved antenna alongside your WTC, just as you do with the extended wire alternative. However... if you get a pesky leak, you just uncork the tubing and blow into it gently with your WTC in the tub. No risk of over pressurization like you'd get using a pump on the schraeder valve. Getting the antenna in can be a bit of a bear, but a little silicone lube and it goes in quite well!

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