Had to pick between a $45 seal and a $350 actuator on a 737 flap job

I was working on a 737 flap issue last Tuesday (the inboard trailing edge was acting up). The book pointed at either a drive seal or the whole actuator assembly. I went with the $45 seal first because one guy at the shop swore he fixed the same issue that way. Turned out he was right, it saved the airline $300 and I had the bird back in service by 3pm. Has anyone else saved a big repair with a small part like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

carr.elliot14d ago

You saved 300 bucks and got a plane back in the air by 3 PM. That's a good day, no doubt. But I think you got lucky. The book had two options for a reason. The seal is a wear item, sure, but if the actuator was actually on its way out, you would have been doing the same job twice in a month. A couple hours of labor and a second seal would eat up that 300 bucks real quick. Not to mention the scheduling headache of pulling the bird again. I've seen guys chase cheap parts and turn a one hour fix into a whole weekend. Sometimes the expensive part is the smart part.

sandraflores14d ago

Read a story once about a guy who swapped out a perfectly good actuator and cursed himself for weeks.