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Dripping smoke system: followup

I recently posted a question about my smoke system dripping after it was turned off. I got a number of replies all of which indicated the problem was most likely caused by the 'normally closed' solenoid that is placed in the line between the pump and the smoke injectors.

This device is placed there to stop the fluid in the tank from syphoning into the muffler when the pump is turned off and if it is either broken or leaking you get dripping.

The recommended solution to try first was to flush the system with some kind of solvent to see if it would clean some junk out of the solenoid valve. Several people recommended Kerosene.

I did this last night, put about ½ gallon of Kerosene in the smoke tank, a bucket under the mufflers and pumped it through. I did it about 4 times and on about the 4^th time it stopped dripping when I switched the pump off!

I then drained the system, filled with smoke fluid, and pumped about a ½ gallon through the system to flush out any remaining Kerosene which you obviously don't want sitting around in there ;)

Anyway, thanks again to the list for help.

Cheers,

Peter Ashwood-Smith
Pitts S-1T C-GZRO

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	Last Update: Fri May 4 13:13:00 2012
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