gasket maker material

Hello all-

I have an old 1982 Yamaha XT-250 that is leaking oil from it's engine right
side case. Without a nearby Yamaha shop for service is there a modern
material, or 'form-a-gasket in a tube that I can use to stop the leak? I
don't do any hard riding on the 'ol girl. Just putting around town puddle
jumper. The only gaskets I can find are a total set for $50. Abit steep for
me.

Any help?

Swede

 

I needed a alternator cover gasket for my '81 CM400T. Rather than pay
the Honda dealer and wait the proverbial "week to 10 days", I bought
some good quality bulk gasket material from NAPA. It comes rolled up
in a box about 2" square by a foot long. There is enough material
in there to make more than one gasket for about half the price of a
single OEM gasket. You can get it in various thicknesses, I forget
exactly how thick the stuff I bought was, but it wasn't very thick,
just like the OEM gasket.

To make the gasket, it's simple- put the gasket material on a nice
solid flat surface, and lay the side cover on it. Gently tap around
the periphery of the cover with a soft faced (plastic only) hammer,
which will indent a perfect outline of the cover and the screw holes.
Then using an exacto knife, scissors, or what have you, cut out the
gasket. To punch the screw holes you can probably use a single paper
punch, the kind that looks like a pliers, not the three-hole variety.

If you're really cheap, skip NAPA and use an old cornflakes box...

 

HeHe,

I took apart a Honda 70 engine and found the base gasket was made from
the packaging from the tube of silicone the guy used everywhere else.
Yamabond makes an excellent gasket, BTW.

 

Cool...thank you all for the helpful responses.

Here's another issue. Yamaha calls for Yamalube 20-W40 engine oil for this
bike. I've been using 10-W40 and the previous owner was using 20-W50.

Which of these two oils is a more desirable replacement for 20-W40. Could I
have brought on the leak problem by using too thin an oil?

Swede

 

krusty kritter wrote:

, I have never seen any of that weight, and don't know if there is

There is, for diesels.

As I've mentioned here before, I am considering trying
0W-40 in a liquid-cooled bike. The only question is whether
is has sufficient film strength to keep the chrome on the
rockers of the desmo. We'll see...