Brief Description: Refilled wet compass with fluid
When the compass arrived I noticed that there had been some fluid leakage in transit. This is a used compass that was shipped to me via Fedex. I am wondering if it made the trip in an unpressurized cargo bay causing a little leakage due to pressure differential at high altitude?
Anyway, a couple air bubbles appeared in the glass window so I decided to drain and refill the compass with new fluid. After a little research I determined the most likely fluid was odorless mineral spirits. When I drained the compass and compared the fluid to mineral spirits it seemed to match (same smell, feel, and color, actually colorless).
After cleaning the compass externally, I removed the filler cap and drained the fluid. The compass was then submerged in a pan of odorless mineral spirits to ensure it was completely filled. I had to roll the compass around a bit to get the final air bubbles expelled. The filler cap was then reinstalled after checking the sealing gasket. The compass was then wiped clean and blow dried with a little compressed air.
The compass appears to be good as new though I am not sure it was perfectly accurate even before the fluid was replaced. Oh well, it will get checked thoroughly once it's in the bird with all the electricity coarsing through the wiring and electronics. The good news is, there will be an ADI Pliot II in the panel and it has a solid state heading indicator to check against.
