Air Leak in GC/MS located at the transfer line, unsure how to proceed

Thank you for the reply.  I was curious if anyone else had any angles to test before I order the new transfer line braze?  I think at this point, that's the only part left that could be the source of my leak.

It is incredibly rare to have the metal of the transferline develop a leak without torque damage to the column end.  The only brazes are at the attachment flange and at the end near the column - there are no other connections in the middle of the transferline braze on EI only systems.

Here's something to try.  Put a row of post-it notes stuck on the manifold below the transferline and leak test again.  Argon is heavier than air and so maybe the leak is lower than the transferline down near the pump or rough pump hose.  A row of large post-it notes across at the yellow arrow will make a barrier that may change the way it responds.

I've done that around the PFTBA valve when I thought the leak was there only to find out that the leak was the side plate O ring and the air duster spray was going there, too.

Hello,

I figured I'd update this thread with the final conclusion to the problem.  As you requested Paul, I placed the post-it notes underneath the transfer line and tested whether the argon gas was being pulled "down" into a leak below the notes or whether it was occurring at the transfer line.  When the placing the argon flow above the notes I still saw the leak, but when placing the flow below the notes the leak was not present.  I moved the argon flow around the entire machine including the back and very bottom and saw no argon ions in the scan.

So, at this point I finally decided to remove the old braze and replace it with a new one.  I did this yesterday, and the air leak is completely gone.  Placing the argon flow next to the same place on the machine now shows no argon ion, and the high nitrogen and oxygen counts are now also gone.  I believe I can now say with a fair amount of confidence that this part can break over time and that it should be brought up as a potential source of air leaks more frequently than it currently is.

In any case, the air leak is now gone and this problem is solved.  I hope this thread can be useful for others who are seeing the same problem as me.

Good news!  Happens, just quite rare in the entire population of Agilent mass spectrometers. Sorry it happened to yours!  The part gets replaced fairly often as too many operators overtighten the column nut, even to the point of bending it or stripping the threads.

Could I get the old part for analysis?

Paul, yes, I'd be happy to send the part to you.  How should I go about doing it?

I sent you a direct email.