Tip - Restoring Rubber Gaskets

Everyone who spends enough time messing with older bikes (and even newer ones) will eventually encounter either a swollen or dried up gasket/o-ring/diaphram. More often than not these bastards can be MASSIVELY expensive to replace. So before you bend over for your favourite parts distributor, have a go at restoring the rubber yourself.

Swollen rubber can be shrunk by applying heat. Using either a hair dryer or heat gun on the bloated rubber should produce results after as little as 10 seconds. Don't over do it; you don't want the rubber to shrink too much.

Swollen float bowl gasket

Apply heat :)

Shrunken rubber can be expanded again by dunking them in carb cleaner or throttle body cleaner for a minute or two. Once again, don't over do it or you'll have to break out the hair dryer again.

Float bowl gasket too small now

Add some carb cleaner or throttle body cleaner

Submerge gasket for a minute or two

As long as the gasket/o-ring/diaphram isn't torn, or cracked you stand a good chance at restoring it for whatever it was intended for.

Perfect fit!