Just curious. Someone dumped an LEI off with me. An '04 Fuel death kite. It has a leaky strut and I was wondering if anyone has played around with running sealant in kite bladders.

I'm thinking I might give it a shot with this thing. Seems if it works that it would be a handy way to repair (temporarily) leaky bladders and keep bladders from going flat in the event they get punctured by something.

Works great on cars and DH bikes.

how would you get the slime to the area where it's leaking? Never used slime before but guessing a spinning tire disperses slime and then it finds the hole. A bladder (especially leading edge) is so long and if you get a pin hole leak they can be difficult to find. How would you get slime into the right area? It almost seem like something that you would need to pull a bladder to find the closest valve to introduce the slime and with all that work you could just patch the leak.
If there was an aerosol spray/mist that could be added to a fully inflated bladder before it looses too much air and if that would then stop a leak that would be easier.

The leak is in the strut. It's actually near the valve so getting the sealant to the leak in this case would not be too difficult.

It's not hard to atomize it as it's fairly liquid in it's raw state. If I put it in a paint sprayer on the compressor that may be a way to introduce it thoroughly or, introduce it with the bladder flat, and manually massage it around to distribute it evenly once you inflate it should seal the hole. The trick would be not to introduce too much maybe?

I'm going to give it shot and see what happens. It can't get any worse right? And who's going to have a bladder for a strut on an old Fuel around here. LEI? What's an LEI?

Hey Chris,
Pump it up, then spray soapy water on the whole leading edge to get the general location of the leak. You will see bubbles coming through the leading edge. Then tie a string to both ends of the bladder, pull the bladder out through the opening. Untie and leave the strings inside the bladder pocket. Re pump the kite up, go to the general location you found, respray with soapy water, find the hole, circle it with marker pen, wipe it with rubbing alcohol, put patch on, let dry, test it with soapy water again. Then get a friend to help you out, loop string around bladder tip, have friend pull string through while you guide bladder into kite always keeping it going in oriented right direction. AND sprinkle a bunch of baby powder on it as you guide it in. Pump it up VERY loosely and firmly run your hands down the leading edge to correctly seat the bladder. If it twists at all, stop pumping and give it a hand job! (lol - post is getting long so thought I'd throw in a joke).
Welcome to the world of LEI's. I hated it so much I sold the all!

have you pulled it to see if it's a pin hole or a number of holes? The strut bladders are by far the easiest to deal with for repair. I have a number of strut bladders from another kite but as long as the dimensions are close and valve is in the right place I may have something for you.
let me know how it works - if it doesn't work is there any reason why a patch wouldn't work - is it too close to the valve?
let me know if you are interested in a bladder and i'll check if there is anything close in what i have here.

Sliming it Won't work.
It's probably the valve.
Do the same that I described above, but if it is the valve, LIGHTLY heat the valve with a blow dryer. LIGHTLY! The peal it off. Clean the area with alcohol and the easyest thing to do is get a replacement valve (u-stick or something like that) and just stick it on. Actually, first put a litte piece of wax paper inside the bladder so you don't stick the valve to the bottom side of the bladder.
Pulling the bladder in and out is exactly like I said above.
You can re glue the original valve back on, but I'd have to type more...
Post if you want to do that and I can explain how.

Wow, this is getting exciting now! I got sucked into Valentines stuff so the kite is spending the night in the side yard. Leading edge is holding just the one strut is leaking and leaking nearly as fast as I inflate it. Def not the valve Flyfish but holy cats what you described sounds crazy to me as a non-LEI guy. Crazy but strangely interesting. :ticking:

So this is going to be a good learning moment for me.

I may just be able to throw a glueless patch on. http://www.parktool.com/product/super-patch-kit-gp-2 I've used them for tons of weird stuff. The tire boots are awesome too.

We'll see tomorrow

wouldn't slime be very heavy?

I'm thinkin' patches

good luck and keep us informed. I have a real interest in LEI for high wind buggy engines.

Thanks,
Chris C1

Old fuels always leaked from the valves. They just peal off in hot weather. Why doesn't someone clever come up with a tubeless LEI....please.