My portlights leak a tiny bit and the gaskets feel rather hard and tired. Searching this group I see that replacement gaskets can be had cut to fit from McMaster Carr and other sources reasonably priced as round neoprene rod or tubing.
Looking at my gaskets, they don’t look round at all? Are they just that squashed and tired?
Thanks Rob. Do your current gaskets look like mine?
Thanks for sharing.
Again, thank you, Rob. I saved those items you posted to my list and will await your information. Forthcoming.
Brian
Jeff,
Hard to tell from the photos.
In the post I made earlier this week ( Leaky Windows ) there is a video where I pull some of the gasket out and I show it in cross-section. Maybe you can tell from the video ?
Seems like the gaskets on Soave started round and then compressed to fit the space available which may not be round. After a while the material doesn’t bounce back with as much force. My impression is that the gasket in my video started round and still had pretty good elasticity, my guess is the gap where the ends meet was the source of my leak.
Not saying round is the only option, just the one presently used on Soave.
I’ll bet there is an engineered gasket made with superior materials that would last longer. Probably cost more than a buck a foot.
I’ll try to get to it this weekend and post details.
Sail on,
Rob…
My notes from gasket replacement on the overhead hatches on my 26U four years ago was that it was round. I didn’t record the dimensions. My recollection is that I measured the gap between the two sides of the channel it’s going into and the depth of the channel (half of the round) and guesstimated my size from those.
Haven’t had leaks (at least from there) since I did it.
-- Bob
The gaskets started out round. If you go to the Atkinson and Hole website and look up parts they list the gaskets and size.
Mark,
Thanks for referring to the site. I noticed that two diameters of gasket are specified for some of the ports. 3/8" prior to 1985 and 1/2" after 1985. So before ordering ( or ripping out old gasket material it’s a good idea to check.
I’ll be checking Soave this weekend. She’s an '87 but you never know which version of the hatches and ports were used.
Thanks,
Rob…
Thanks Mark
I was lucky. La Reina was built in 1982 so I was fairly certain she had the older style ports.
