An old A&P at Tulsa told me to quit greasing the wrong side of the gasket, and I owe him a beer

Jade Owens · 2026-09-15T13:30:03.062212+00:00

Three years back I was doing a wheel change on a 737 and this old timer named Ray watched me for about ten seconds before he said, 'You're packing that grease on the wrong face, kid.' I brushed him off because I'd been doing it my way since A&P school and nobody had complained. Two landings later that same jet came back through with a hot brake and a grease streak down the strut, and I had to admit Ray was dead right about which side of the seal takes the lube. Now I keep a note taped inside my box that just says 'ask Ray' because that one tip has kept me out of three write-ups since. Funny how a guy with 30 years on the line can spot in ten seconds what the manual buries in paragraph six. Anybody else have a senior guy hand them a shortcut that sounded dumb until it wasn't?

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An old A&P at Tulsa told me to quit greasing the wrong side of the gasket, and I owe him a beer | Aircraft Mechanics - HW Forums