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Silicone sealant blunder?


Nick B.

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Yesterday evening I reassembled the gearbox. And at 3AM this morning I woke up realising I might have made a blunder.

When I reattached the bellhousing, I gave the lower blot a dab of silicone sealant, as I wante it to be oiltight and not leak out into the gearbox. 

This probably illustrates why you should not mess with gearboxes after 3 days straight work with insignificant amount of sleep.

What I fear is that a pea-size blob of silicone will enter the gearbox. Will this be a problem, or will it just be crushed to atoms and do no harm?

Cheers

Nick

 

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Less of a problem for gearbox than an engine. How much went in will depend on how much you put on and whether you put silicone on the bolt threads, where it gets pushed up towards the bolt head as screwed in (good), or in the hole where it tends to get pushed though into the casing as the bolt is screwed in (less good).

The lower bell-housing bolt is meant to have copper washer to prevent leakage.

Nick

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14 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Less of a problem for gearbox than an engine. How much went in will depend on how much you put on and whether you put silicone on the bolt threads, where it gets pushed up towards the bolt head as screwed in (good), or in the hole where it tends to get pushed though into the casing as the bolt is screwed in (less good).

The lower bell-housing bolt is meant to have copper washer to prevent leakage.

Nick

I did put the copperwasher on the lower bolt - thats good. I did however put a blob of sealant in the hole instead of the thread - less good.... Stupid me 

 

What to do, what to do.  I think the sealant will cure an stick to the bolt, - and if it goes lose, it will probably worst case clog up the OD-oilfilter , and I can fix that at oilchanges. 

 

Cheers

Nick

 

 

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Don't think I'd worry very much, unless you really squirted it in, there can only be a tiny blob inside and its probably curing nicely on the tip of the bolt now, and even if it does eventually come off I don't think it will do any damage.

If you haven't fitted the gearbox yet, you could just remove that bolt as see if there is any stuck on the tip of the bolt.

Alan

 

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Just now, oldtuckunder said:

Don't think I'd worry very much, unless you really squirted it in, there can only be a tiny blob inside and its probably curing nicely on the tip of the bolt now, and even if it does eventually come off I don't think it will do any damage.

If you haven't fitted the gearbox yet, you could just remove that bolt as see if there is any stuck on the tip of the bolt.

Alan

 

Hello Alan

 

Thank you - that is very much an option which I was hoping that someone would suggest as I were thinking along those lines. I will do so, and hope most of the silicone is attached to the bolt.

 

Thankyou :biggrin:

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On 6/22/2018 at 12:47 PM, Nick Jones said:

Agree with the above.

Learning to take away from this:

- applying sealant to bolt thread, not the hole, is best practice

- better to use a proper "lock 'n seal" type product rather than silicone

It'll be fine :)

Nick

Good - I will be back  in the garage next thursday and put the  engine and gearbox back in the car. 

Better get some thread sealant that is meant for the job

 

Cheers

Nick

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