viz:
GPS speedo for a boat.
Was ok last fall, stored over the winter, and now the gasket has expanded.
Something with the Teflon grease I'm using on it is my guess.
Has anybody seen this before?
Any way to make it shrink back to it's normal size?
I had that problem with carburetor bowl gaskets. Once used, they expanded to the point that they couldn't be reinstalled if removed. Letting them "air dry" for a couple of days fixed it. My problem was gasoline. Not sure if it's relevant to grease.
Yeah, many gasket materials are prone to grow in contact with petro-based stuffs...that one is extreme, however...
None in a short time frame that I'm aware of; o-rings generally will eventually return to roughly original dimensions if thoroughly cleaned and left for a period but it takes quite a while in my experience.
I'd guess if you want this operational sooner rather than later best just find a replacement.
On 04/12/2017 12:15 PM, dpb wrote: ...
A "wonder if?" occurred to me this morning on way to the koffee klatch in town--that is, if a vacuum pump could/would outgas it and quicken up any return to original dimensions or not...
I made mistake of greasing an o-ring on my water filter housing with Vaseline and it expanded too much. I easily shrunk it back with careful heating with a heat gun.
Per Frank:
I tried that once, but no-go.
Sounds like I am going to try it again - with a little more heat and time.
Worth trying. Worse you could do was have to buy a new gasket. The o-ring for my unit listed for $11 which I think is outlandish. OEM suppliers can hose you with parts cost.
On 04/14/2017 1:05 PM, Frank wrote: ...
Any place of any size should have a industrial distributorship that should be able to match virtually anything...even here w/ population of only 20K or so has one--I've never failed to find whatever it was in o-rings or the like and they can cut a new gasket of any size/material needed. Generally ones'ies are the change in your pocket for small stuff to maybe $1 or the like for this...
Try shrinking it with alcohol. It extracts the petroleum from the ring, shrinking it.
If it wa ME I'd try to get an industrial o-ring that is resistant to petroleum products - and likely het it for about 1/4 the cost of the OEM part.
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