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That time I got chewed out for skipping the torque seal on a nose gear install
I was working a line shift at a small regional airport near Nashville about 2 years ago, and we had a CRJ come in for a quick tire swap on the nose gear. I was in a hurry because the crew was boarding in 45 minutes, so I torqued the nuts and just moved on without putting any torque seal on them. The next day the lead mechanic pulled me aside and told me the inspector caught it during a walk around and wrote us up a nonconformance report. My lead was super cool about it but he told me straight up, 'that seal is the only way anyone knows you actually torqued it, not just guessed.' I felt pretty dumb honestly because I had been cutting corners just to save maybe 2 minutes. Has anyone else learned a simple habit the hard way after a close call like that?
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finley_flores281mo ago
dang that's a solid point I never really thought about before. so when you see a streak of seal still intact hours or days later, that's basically proof nothing moved right? but what about on parts that get hot like brake calipers or exhaust bolts, does the seal actually hold up long enough to matter or does it just melt off and become useless anyway?
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It's a little more than just torque seal though. The seal also tells the next guy that the fastener hasn't backed off since it was installed.
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