primary drive case gaskets PD14, PD14/1, ET106,

[Big Sid]

Sid . Shrunken cover gaskets easily made usable . Place in a saucepan with water and a bit of dish washing liquid . Simmer on the stove for 15 minutes and they will totally relax and return to the original size . Cool off and then place on an
opened newspaper spread out on the floor in its flat correct shape . Fold the next page of the paper over across it and then walk across the top page so squeezing out the water which is absorbed top and bottom by the newspaper . Lift off top sheet and find it fully restored , dry and ready to use . Easily done .

 

[craig]

Thanks Sid, I enjoy and value your input. i have heard this "soak and dry" story over and over from various people, and when i use this info, it doesnt work for me. i am not incompetent, i understand the drill, but it is stupid time wasting exercise!
I buy gasket for Japanese motorcycles and they always seem to fit. different gasket material. Now this is 2012 ....about 66 years later, and the Vincent suppliers cant do better than this? WTF!
I went with "goo of the month-YamHonKawSuzBond#666" seems to be working so far. I have Chicago Vincent PD14 on order.
PS - nothing like "Vincent gaskets" wadded up and shipped in a small package as some suppliers continue to do.

Sid . Shrunken cover gaskets easily made usable . Place in a saucepan with water and a bit of dish washing liquid . Simmer on the stove for 15 minutes and they will totally relax and return to the original size . Cool off and then place on an
opened newspaper spread out on the floor in its flat correct shape . Fold the next page of the paper over across it and then walk across the top page so squeezing out the water which is absorbed top and bottom by the newspaper . Lift off top sheet and find it fully restored , dry and ready to use . Easily done .

 

[Big Sid]

Sid . We have recently gotten new Gaskets and they were indeed cut wrong . Shite city stuff .

 

[craig]

I recieved the Chicago PD 14 Vincent twin primary gasket today......it is absolutely a work of art.
Cut to fit exactly, shaped correctly around all the case screws.
I will post picture.
This looks like the answer to primary Vincent gaskets!

 

[Martyn Goodwin]

Painless Paper Gaskets​

How often do you purchase a paper gasket for your bike and then find it is out of shape, distorted, crushed and or folded or that it just plain does not fit – and when (should that be if) you finally coax it into position the seal ends up leaking anyway?

I was faced with this problem and found the solution. I purchased a roll of Gasket “paper” made byGarlock (USA). It is 0.014” thick, “Garlock681” and it cost pennies! To make agasket simply put the required component face down onto the gasket paper thencreate an outline with a pencil. Cut outthe outline then place the soon to be new gasket on the face of the componentso that it is all aligned, then with a small ball pein hammer GENTLY tap aroundthe edge of any one of the through holes. This will neatly create a hole. To keep all aligned now drop one of the intended securing bolts/screwsthru this hole and into the component. Now create another hole diagonally opposite the first and again pop in ascrew/bolt. With the gasket now “lockedin position” you can use the same method to create the rest of the fixingholes. If you want a skinny gasket(something I DO NOT do) then you can use the hammer again to GENTLY cut out thecentre of the gasket and it’s all done.

For me, I use a scalpel to cut out the centre of the gasketleaving a width of at least ½ inch then I trial fit it on the motor, trimmingfurther as required to clear any components. This results in a self-supporting gasket that is easy to put intoposition. As a by-product, theadditional gasket material provides a better “wick” to facilitate the postinstallation swelling/sealing of the joint.

As to pre-treatment of ANY paper type gasket material. I talked at length with the engineers atGarlock and they advised very strongly AGAINST any pre-treatment. The paper gasket material is designed toswell once it comes into contact with oil or water and this swelling happensonly ONCE. So you apply the gasket drythen tighten down all the bolts etc. After a couple of hours again check and as required retighten theretaining bolts and only then put the fluid into the motor. What happens then is the gasket starts toabsorb some of the fluid and it swells – by up to 10% and in doing so fills anyminor voids and also increases the load – i.e. tightness – of the retainingscrews. Subsequent to the initialinstallation if you need to open up the joint for any reason you should use anew gasket, for have gone through the swelling process once, on reuse therewill be little, if any, subsequent gasket swelling and leaks are highly likely.

Cripes, it’s taken me longer to describe this that it doesto create a full set of gaskets for a Comet!

Martyn