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Owner Replace Oil Quick Drain Valve

Asked by: 2226 views ,
Aircraft Systems, FAA Regulations, Private Pilot

The quick drain valve on our older Mooney has started leaking and making a bit of a mess. We went to our local shop to asked them to schedule to replace it for us and they told us they are booked out several weeks and turning away any smaller jobs due to being understaffed -_- I mentioned we do our own oil changes and he suggested that if we were handy enough to handle an oil change we could just remove the quick drain and replace it with an original plug and he was happy to give us one for free. That would get us to our next oil change and we could get it replaced then. Part 43 allows owners to do the oil changes and replacing the quick drain valve with a plug looks to be basically identical to the oil change process if you didn't have a quick drain valve in the first place: remove the plug, catch the oil, replace plug, add new oil. But if I'm going to down that route anyway why not just grab a new quick drain off of aircraft spruce and put that in instead of the plug? Are we on the right side of owner maintenance if we replace the quick drain with a plug as the A&P suggested? How about if we replace the quick drain with a new one? Or should we get a sign off from an A&P

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1 Answers



  1. RickS on Jun 18, 2016

    I am an A&P, but with no GA experience, it’s all been airline. Having put forth that disclaimer, I am confident that you could replace the QD fitting, as long as no special tooling is required, without running afoul of FAR 43. I assume it screws into the drain hole, just as the standard plug does? So, in effect, the QD fitting IS the plug. And if you can do your own oil changes, and removing the plug is part of that…. well, you get the idea.

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