I have a ‘68 Cessna 182, in annual, and my fuel selector valve is leaking. I called McFarlane and they can rebuild my valve or sell me a rebuild kit. If they do the rebuild it’s a couple week turn around. Has anyone rebuilt one of these valve and are there any tricks to doing it?

I would let them do it. The valve on our 76 leaked when selected to the right tank. When we sent it to them they sent us back pics where someone else had been into it prior and it was so jacked up that it was not repairable. We sourced a used one off ebay and sent it to them. It too was in need of repair and some of the parts needed were on backorder from Cessna. End result was the part that was needed was good (about the only thing) in our original valve so we sent it back and from two bad they made one good. It was pricey but still less than half the cost of a new one.


I have heard that McFarlane is working on a valve for the 180 series aircraft and that will be a fantastic thing when they do. Yet one more part that will be available to help keep the fleet going as they continue to age.


Edit: It appears they are making new valves now for 182/185 aircraft. I would go that route if I was faced with that issue again. No more worries for I am betting a long, long time.

Hey Dave,

Thanks for your response. I spoke to Mcfarlane earlier today and they are not yet approved to provide a new fuel valve for my 182L. When I poked around the internet it sounded like some had redone fuel valves with no problems and other had a hard time, so I thought I'd post and see what every says on BCP

I have rebuilt 180 and 185 selector valves 180 j and older are easy 185 e and newer are hard . Needed to make instalation tool .i have a 180k have not needed to do yet but are different.

My IA and I rebuilt my 185 valve from a McFarland kit and it works fine. You do need to come up with an installation tool. Fortunately my IA had done it a couple of times before. If not I would send it to McFarland.

I rebuilt the one for my 205 project plane today. It took a few hours mostly because the drawings in the maintenance manual were inaccurate. Mine has (6) line fittings on it. Quite complex, and it only has Right, Left, or Off. All that and they couldn't even have a Both setting? I couldn't figure out why they would ever run the fuel and vapor return line back through the fuel selector, then into the header tanks?
Anyone here ever change out a (3) position valve for a (4) position one?

I just recently rebuilt one on a 206. If it’s the same selector there really isn’t anything to it. The manual explains it pretty well. Just take care to not twist or pinch the o rings.

thanks for everyone's replies. We are pulling it and sending it off to McFarlane for a rebuild

Good luck. Hopefully it is in good enough shape to accept refurbishment!

Has anyone here rebuilt the fuel valve on a 182A? Mine leaks in the “off” position so it’s a pain to clean the gascolator aside from the need to be able to shut the fuel completely off. From McFarlane the rebuild kit is $85. $685 minimum for them to rebuild. A mechanic on my field says he’s rebuilt a couple of them. I’ve read that the early ones are pretty easy to do. Any experience out there?

Assuming your mechanic is reasonable, I would let him do it. Early model valves are pretty simple vs late model ones as stated previously.

I just modified my fuel slow down valve to make it back into a fuel shut off valve for my 182G. I used the complete McFarlane kit which is nicely complete.
The hardest part was holding the valves in the body while inserting the selector cylinder. What I ended up doing, was using my Dremmel tool and grinding a nice deep notch in the underside of two 1” screws so that they would notch into one side of the valve springs. I inserted them head first through the fuel supply openings, used washers and nuts and tightened them to compress the valve springs. The selector barrel still took some persuasion to get in past the valves but a little bit of silicone grease and some swear words made it work.
It was definitely worth the time and money that shipping them off would have taken.

My 1959 model year C180B had sat for 10 yrs prior to being resurrected in the mid-2000’s. The fuel selector started leaking in 2017, and was easy to to repair as far as o’rings. However, corrosion had set in, and I likewise had to source another valve to get the necessary parts.

Anyone have photos or a description of the special tool for removing the fuel selector? I have a 180J that had a leaky fuel selector last year. Removal and replacement was a bear. Now I get to do it again because it’s not shutting off. Just looking for some tips to reduce frustration.

Stickshaker wrote:Anyone have photos or a description of the special tool for removing the fuel selector? I have a 180J that had a leaky fuel selector last year. Removal and replacement was a bear. Now I get to do it again because it’s not shutting off. Just looking for some tips to reduce frustration.

The service manual has some pictures of what you need to make.

Cub180 wrote:I have rebuilt 180 and 185 selector valves 180 j and older are easy 185 e and newer are hard . Needed to make instalation tool .i have a 180k have not needed to do yet but are different.

You wouldn’t happen to have a photo or description of the installation tool would you?

J model and older are easy to oh 185 u need to make install tool not sure on k model like mine but think they are like 185 type . 185 valves I did I used vitron o rings cost about 6$ 4 hrs labour to rebuild valve.

Not sure if they all share the same valves. My 1959 180C had an issue. Someone had worked on the valve and did not index it correctly when the put the top plate in. It looks like the three screws are symmetrically spaced but they are not and you can index it wrong. The simply redialed the cover plate and it was 15 degrees off. You don't notice this until the valve is fully installed and I am sure they did not want to spend another 2 hours pulling it out just to correct it. I was having some issues with the selector not fully indenting so I corrected the misalignment when I cleaned everything up. DENNY