Unpopular opinion: torque seal is more trouble than it's worth on most hardware

I know everyone in the hangar swears by the stuff, but I spent 45 minutes last Tuesday scraping dried torque seal off a flap track fitting on a CRJ. Then I put fresh on, only to have it crack off during the next inspection cycle. The inspector just shrugged and said "put more on." For small fasteners like 1/4 turn fasteners or #10 screws, I'd rather just trust my wrench and the feel. Has anyone else found a good alternative or am I the only one who hates this purple goo?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy1549d ago

Honestly I used to think torque seal was foolproof but now I'm totally with you on that.

xena_brown5010d ago

I mean, I've definitely spent way too much time scraping that purple goo off stuff too, so I feel your pain. "Put more on" is basically the universal fix for everything in aviation, right? My personal trick is that I just use a tiny dab of clear nail polish on smaller fasteners, it holds up way better than torque seal and doesn't crack or flake off everywhere. Plus, when you have to remove it, a little acetone wipes it clean in seconds instead of turning into a 45 minute scraping party. Idk, maybe it's just me being lazy, but I stopped using the purple stuff on anything smaller than a 5/16 bolt.