Miles By Motorcycle
established 11 years ago
Separating an oil plan that has been glued in place using too much Orange RTV Gasket MakerSubscribe to this blog RSS Feed
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    Yermo
    5 years ago
    I'm posting this in the hopes that it might be useful for someone else. This cost me a few hours of my life.

    Some previous owner of the donor motor I'm swapping into my bike used /way/ too much Orange RTV gasket maker to reseal the oil pan. It was pointed out to me that if so much had been pressed to the outside a similar amount would be pressed out on the inside and over time would likely break loose and contaminate the engine.

    I undid all the mounting bolts and whacked on it with a rubber mallet with gradually increasing force. 

    No joy.

    I tried a razor blade.

    No joy.

    I even tried attaching a ratcheting strap to the oil over opening and cranked on it as hard as I dared and then whacked on it with the mallet.

    No joy.

    Based on suggestions from the K100 group on Facebook, I tried the thinnest wire I could find, a light E string from my guitar. It was too thick. 

    Based on another suggestion, I tried dental floss, of all things.

    That allowed me to make a small bit of progress but it would get stuck and build up. 

    I tried strands of high strength nylon rope but that did not work as well as the dental floss.

    I wanted to see what thickness of wire might fit into the very small gap so I pulled out a 0.005 feeler gauge. It then dawned on me that maybe I could use the feeler gauge as a cutter carefully. 

    It worked surprisingly well. I did put some scratches into the mating surface but my suspicion is that I did not do enough damage to cause a leak.

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    Yermo
    5 years ago

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    Yermo
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    Yermo
    5 years ago

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    Yermo
    5 years ago

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    Yermo
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    Yermo
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    Yermo
    5 years ago

    What a mess.
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    Robermcm
    5 years ago
    good tip!