Thunderbolt rotator gear reducer gaskets.

[WhelenBoy]

Hello all, I'm wondering where I can get new gaskets for my rotator gear reducer, as the ones on mine from the 50's aren't holding any of the new oil I put in. I'm not wanting to make new ones, and as for searching online by the brand name of the reducer, I've found nothing. Any help is much appreciated as always! Thank you.

[Jim Z]

it really isn't that hard to make new ones; some gasket paper and an x-acto knife are all it should take.

[Antiwhoknows]

Permatex gasket maker works good too.

[murrfarms]

Permatex gasket maker works good too.

Agreed. That's what I used on the two right angle gearboxes I've redone the gaskets on so far. If you really want a "real" gasket in there instead, you can always do what Jim said and go buy the roll of paper/cork gasket material at your local auto parts store and cut the pattern you need out of it. It's just a bigger pain in the arse going that route, whereas with the Permatex gasket maker all you do is just lay a bead of it down in the middle of the mating surface of the cover and go around both sides of each hole. Just don't put a ton of it down on there, it'll ooze out and potentially get on the gear surfaces or gunk up the inside of the case.

[CDV777-1]

Agreed. That's what I used on the two right angle gearboxes I've redone the gaskets on so far. If you really want a "real" gasket in there instead, you can always do what Jim said and go buy the roll of paper/cork gasket material at your local auto parts store and cut the pattern you need out of it. It's just a bigger pain in the arse going that route, whereas with the Permatex gasket maker all you do is just lay a bead of it down in the middle of the mating surface of the cover and go around both sides of each hole. Just don't put a ton of it down on there, it'll ooze out and potentially get on the gear surfaces or gunk up the inside of the case.

I tried this on the first two reducers I worked on and without the paper gaskets the worm gear bearings bound up when I put the end caps on. It's been a long time but it seems like I also remember shims between the worm gear bearings and the end caps. That's the reason I ended up making gaskets with gasket material. I kept track of how many shims were on each end and made the gaskets with similar material as the originals and the reducers went back together with no binding. I don't know if all the reducers are like that. The ones I did were all the old 50s era Abart gear reducers. I haven't taken a "later version" apart so I don't know if those have shims. I guess if you use permatex or RTV and they don't bind up when the end caps are put back on then it would be ok.

[WhelenBoy]

Thanks so much guys! And as for my reducer ,Eric, it is also the 1950's Abart. You've all been very helpful, and I'll look into said options.