During the annual this year we have made an interesting discovery.  Our plane has a glass gascolator and it appears that sometime in the past there were 2 sizes of glass gascolators, 2 inch and 2 1/8 inch. 

Our plane has a 2 1/8” top part and a 2” glass and bottom part.  After looking around for a 2 1/8” glass and bottom, it is beginning to look like there are a lot of aircraft out there with the same mismatched parts.

Mr. Vern Gregory and I have come to a semi-conclusion that at some point in time, the 2 1/8” glass was not available and many were replaced with the 2” glass and bottom.  I know that our plane was wrecked in about 1975 with a pretty good amount of front end damage and I suspect that is when the mismatch occurred.

Right now it looks like the only proper cure for this situation is to replace the entire gascolator with the current metal one.

I asked one of my A&P friends about the legalities.  It is her understanding that if it was installed originally, it was legal but if replaced it had to be replaced with a metal one.  Then she clarified that this was her understanding/thought/opinion/etc but would have to look it up to be positive.  Sounds logical so it can’t be right.