--- In
DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Saline wrote:
> I think I'd go with a sealant before I'd do the inner tube gasket. I
Okay, I drove by my local Pep Boys on the way home, and there wasn't much there that
stated safe for assemblies involving gasoline. There was Permatex gasket sealant Type 2,
which I know is safe for gasoline but requires a paper gasket to do its thing. Then there
was Permatex Super High Tack Gasket Sealant, a viscious yellow rubbery stuff which
appears to be identical to the "shoe goo" that backpackers use for shoe repairs. I already
had Permatex #2 (for example, I used it on one side of the magneto cover gasket to "stick"
it to the cover so it'd stay in place while I assembled the assembly), so I got the Super High
Tack stuff.
> don't know how long the inner tube would hold up in contact with
> gasoline.
That synthetic Taiwanese rubber (it's an old Cheng Shen tube) is impervious to pretty
much everything. Coat it with Permatex #2 on both sides and you should be good to go. I
agree that a natural rubber European tube wouldn't last too long in that situation.
> The bad gasket you have could probably be lightly coated on both sides
> with ultra gray or similar product and then assembled. Let it cure/set
> for 12 to 24 hours and I bet you'd be good to go.
Well, the bad gasket COULD be coated, if it didn't fall apart when I took the petcock off!
Yes, the thing was only three years old and *DISINTEGRATED* from dry-rot and oxidation.
Now, I know we have some nasty chemicals in our "gasoline" out here in Kah-lee-foh-
nee-ah (as our Governator likes to call it), but that's ridiculous.
So what I did was take the original o-ring that came off the petcock and stick it back on
with that yellow shoo-goo lookin' stuff, topped it with more of that shoo-goo lookin' stuff
, spread some of the shoo-goo on the tank mating surface, let it set for a few minutes to
get tacky rather than fully liquid, then assembled with a big "Splat!". Hopefully this'll seal it
despite the imperfections of the mounting surface on the IMS tank (which is NOT smooth
by any means). We'll see. According to the Permatex web site it takes 24 hours to fully
cure, so I'll turn the gas tank back upright tonight (I only had a couple gallons of gas in it
since I'd deliberately run it down to more easily take it off to do work on the bike so just
turned it on its side so the gas was in the other half of the tank) and see what happens.
Either gas will start coming out, or it won't. If gas starts coming out, I'll sick Cheng Shin
on it :-}.
> I think the real issue isn't what will stick to the IMS tank but instead
> what will conform to the imperfections in the sealing surface so fuel
> can't pass.
Indeed. IMS tanks are rather crudely molded. Nobody will ever confuse them with being
works of art. That said, they do the job, kinda like our KLR's I guess, ugly but effective. It's
just irritating when they do gratuitous cheapness such as that !@#$! disintegrating fuel
petcock gasket.
-E