Ran into a problem I've not had before, the -6AN female line fitting won't seat properly to seal on the male -6AN, both are aluminum and the male is Tig welded onto a power steering remote reservoir on my just OT wagon project. Appears the male / female taper part of the fitting aren't playing nice together. Have just a small ring of contact on the black anodized line female fitting. All the other fittings sealed fine and the male part of the rest are steel. This is the return line to the reservoir. The line fittings are premium Fragola performance piece's so I have it narrowed down to the Tig welded fitting on the reservoir. It's a small slow leak but irritating. My question is, do you think some lapping compound on the taper and working the fitting back and forth might help seal the deal. Trying hard not to have to pull the reservoir back off, machining the the fitting off and Tigging on a new one. Maybe some kind of sealant ? Even with it being the return line there is pressure involved. Any help appreciated, Scruffy.
Guess I assumed they were all 37 degree seeing it came as a package deal with fittings already on the pump. The -10AN next to it is 37 degree as are the fittings on the pump. I'll have to drain the reservoir anyways and will check when I do that.
At my work place we used to have copper conical washers to seal leaky hydraulic fittings on our old garbage packers. They actually worked pretty well. Hydraulic shop should have them in stock.
I had a weeping fitting on my 34's fuel system. If you have the correct flares as mentioned above and they still leak, this will cure. But do not over tighten the fittings, that is what causes them to leak.
So I tried a frugal, zero out of pocket fix. I found a steel male 37 degree fitting I had and did indeed use some lapping compound to resurface the female surface in the fitting. Took 3 rounds to clean the tapered surface up and took the anodizing off that surface also, maybe slightly softer now. Washed both fittings with lacquer thinner and then put them back together and tightened firmly to try to form the aluminum surface over the steel surface. Cleaned up the fitting and reassembled the hose and put it back on the reservoir ( reservoir fittings tapered surface looked fine ) and filled it up enough, that if it's going to leak, it will. Will update and if that doesn't do it I'll hit up the hydraulic shop on Monday and get a copper washer. Figured this was worth a try and cost zero. Thanks for the help !
Thanks, after 300 or so fittings in my lifetime, this is the first one to bite me. I have a hydraulic shop 5 minutes away, so if need be I'll go there. I tried not to over tighten it, time will tell if my MacGyver fix worked.
For future reference, the Fragola fittings are "not" premium fittings. Unless they have changed their ways in the last year or so, the I.D.'s in their fittings are undersize according to the AN specifications. This was not only verified by a comparison a few years back in one of the magazines, but a friend bought a hand full of their fittings a little over a year ago. I remembered the comparison, so we started measuring them compared to a couple of Earls fittings. All of the Fragolas inside diameters were notably undersized. They were all returned to the seller. The -6 was barely 5/16", when it's supposed to be 3/8". Mike
Common or garden copper washer meets 37 degree flaring too. Voila (Walla - ha ha).Conical seal. I've only done it once as a get out of trouble fix and I've yet to revisit it to fix it 'properly'. Those Khul tool things look pretty useful. Chris
Over the last 40 plus years I've purchased from a couple of the "premium" brand AN fittings, couplers mfg's and not had any leakage problems. I have heard that some of the offshore/no-name fittings from the big box suppliers are not up to the quality of Earls, Russell, etc, usually a reason for the lower cost.
This was the 1st thing i thought of, too. The aluminum may not crush the copper, however. They do work well with steel fittings.
-6 may be ok for you...BUT...true -6 is a few thousandths under 3/8"...NOT 5/16". You're welcome to use all the 5/16" that you want, but don't say that it's...-6 in size, because it's not..! Mike
I use JIC fittings. For what we do with them, they are fine. JIC fittings are used on industrial equipment and made to the same dimensions as AN fittings and are much cheaper. Honestly, they are just as good as AN fittings, they just don't test or guarantee them to goverment specs because they don't use them on submarines or spaceships. They do however get proven on all types of heavy equipment that torture them every day more than you will in a lifetime. You can actually afford to buy them in quanity and store them in a drawer. Govt specs often are rediculous. I worked as a buyer and had to deal with many of them. We had some electronic parts we used in a weapon system that had to undergo a torture test before being used. Can't remember the term for the test, but basically it was a "shake and bake". The component basically had to complete a Baja race BEFORE they could use it. To me, thats a used part. One of the engineers got some of the components that hadn't been tested first and assembled the circuit cards. When it was discovered, the cards were "junk". Rather than throw away the expensive cards or try to repopulate them, I told them to save them for "testing" systems. We called them "gold cards" and technicians would use them to troubleshoot systems in the fleet and put the certified cards in if replacement was needed. We then made new cards with the correct components. Later the government changed the spec to accept components if 1 out of each batch passed the test. Then as time went on and they had no short term failures, they accepted the components from vendors who had a proven record of reliability.
So, under no load or pressure all was good. Once a load was applied, drip. drip. drip. Washer's are in my future.
Tried the washers same problem. Got a brand new hose fitting and snugged it tight, same problem. Seeing I purchased a complete front drive set as a whole, there were no markings or numbers on the reservoir. Through a google search I found them for sale with reviews. Seems the 6AN bung leaks or weeps on most of them with a 1.3 out of 5 star rating. Pretty sure the 37 degree angle is more like 36 or 35 degrees or so and the taper is only making contact on the small end. I found a neat 37 degree resurfacing tool made by Koul Tool and that's next and the last try on fixing this reservoir. I'll use Dykum on the taper and see what things look like from there. It's always something.
Wonder if anyone makes a piloted " dressing" tool ? Do they make those conical washers in dead soft aluminum ?
The ones I buy from "Aircraft Spruce" are dead soft aluminum and the ONLY AN fittings to use are from XRP here in Calif, with plumbing racecars like I do , there are many situations that XRP had the solution where others did not
I don't know why you have that much return pressure, factory just use a hose clamp. Before I spent the money on "koul" I'd use a name brand hyd sealant.
From what I've read 1200# on the pressure side, 300# on the return side. I did resurface the fitting and it was for sure "off". Will assemble again tomorrow and see how things are. No wonder I like manual steering and a dropped axle.
I get all my lines and fittings from a local circle track supplier who's been around 50 years. They aren't going to sell brands that fail because 1st thing Monday people would be lined up there. This was all about the fitting on the reservoir and nothing about the hose ends and lines. I had no control over where the reservoir came from or quality, it came as a package deal from White Performance and has been on a shelf since 2016 until recently. The fitting taper was indeed off and is now resurfaced, will be assembling tomorrow and going from there. Not really sure how I could pressurize a power steering system with air, so fluid will be going back in and now should be leak free. Thanks for the help.
Use who ever you are comfortable with as do I. There is some product coming in from un-named sources (Not to say that this is your issue) and one should not have to massage any premium fitting
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