The tops of the apex seals keep popping off while I am trying to put a iron on . I have spent more time on the ground searching for these things, luckily I have found them all. Anyone expierenced this? Solutions?

 

a dab of super glue

 

I was thinking that but I was second guessing myself. This is my second attempt and I don't want to make any stupid mistakes this time.

Thanks

 

When you glue them, glue them overlong. This will reduce tension on the spring slightly.

 

That's not the way I do them. I like 79.98mm so they don't have to fight against the tension bolts during assembly. I used to do them overlong and it kinda sucked. The ones that didn't snap apart caused extra drag on the side plates making for more drag during the first test crank by hand. Felt like there as something wrong with the engine. So I started doing them short and never a problem since.

 

or place them in the rotor with the inner edge facing down and the outer edge facing above the rotor housing surface. when you lay the iron on it will push them into place. this eliminates the possibility of the spring popping them out and wherever.

 

My friend did it that way with OEMs. It shears the tops off the little traingle end pieces.

 

strange, i have never seen that happen.. of course i use vaseline so that everything can move freely however.

 

Really, though, the glue never seems to hold, so I just assemble them in place and use friction against the rotor housing to hold the corner piece in. Works fine as long as you are careful dropping the eccentric shaft/center housing over the mess. Or if you assemble from the center housing outwards in both directions.

Now, fun is trying to do this with reverse-installed seals like you have to do when you relieve the secondary eyebrows on a bridge port and still run 2-piece seals.

 

Yeah he didn't use any vaseline on the seals themselves. I accidentally sheared the tops off of three OEMs once too. I never assembled that way again.

 

I just got done stacking a 12A with them glued at like 69.94mm average. It went togther without a hitch and hand cranks very nicely. I was more worried about the reused coolant seals than the new glued apex seals.

Speaking of used coolant seals, I had to stack the 4 rotor from the middle out. But that was last year. It's since been torn down and sold. The owner wanted to sell the kit. I kept all my parts and built a 12A out of them.

Yeah I did a set of half bridge ports and had to reverse three of the seals. Again they were glued a little shorter and all went well during assembly.

 

^used coolant seals? Ive got a set of 12A seals that I may never use ...

 

They never experienced a heat cycle.

 

I did use glue and the motor rotates smooth even though I didn't use any vaseline. I kept pulling the irons back off to make sure everything was still in place, probably looked pretty crazy. I hope to drop it in tonight but I didn't pull the tranny with it. Last time I did this I had a real tough time lining the motor up, think I would have learned. I did use a couple long bolts to pull the everything together but it still sucked.

 

Every transmission I get, I bullet-nose the end of the input so that even if the clutch is a teensy bit out of line, the trans will spline in easily. Makes them fall right in when just changing transmissions, too.

I think my trans-swap record is 35 minutes. I can get that even lower if I'd remember to slot the holes in the slave cylinder and use studs and nuts with captivated washers. Loosen a few turns and push the slave forward and it comes out, reverse to assemble, no fussing around with three hands trying to get the bolts in.

The slave cylinder really should be mounted with studs and not bolts. I've seen far too many transmissions with stripped slave cylinder threads. Extra-long bolts will usually work as a fix without having to resort to helicoiling, but studs would solve the problem entirely.

 

i used to assemble without gluing the seals together. it was only relatively recently that i started that (maybe within the last 5-7 years). i will say this though (and i know it may sound like an ad), but i've learned not to bother with anything other than genuine Krazy Glue. i bought other brands, and quite frankly if they glued anything at all, they seemed to glue everything but the damn seals.

that said, i don't see myself building without glue again. it makes things go so much better.

as someone that had stripped 2 of them in my lifetime, i couldn't agree more.

 

When you say bullet-nose, what exactly are you saying? Whatever it is, I will do it tomorrow. I already spent a hour trying to wrestler the engine in. Tried two spots to lift the engine from and neither have given me the correct angle. Last time I used some long bolts when I got close but it still took way too long.

 

i swear i've seen some with studs?

i like the slotting slave idea though.

 

the REPU and RX4 have studs, probably many others from the 70's with the large box trannies as well.

 

Yep the ribcases had studs.

I've swapped in longer bolts and studs in the later smoothcases. Both work but I prefer studs because they work better.

 

like the old schools, front cover shoukd be converted to studs instead of bolts. iv'e seen them stripped many times

 

from popping out apex assists to stripped front cover mount threads, this thread covers it front to back.

 

Sorry but bullet-nose the end of the input? I'm guessing you mean rounding off the flat, correct? I woke up today thinking about this.

 

i hope i can speak for him with this ....

yes. basically put a little taper on the end of the input shaft to give it less surface for interference with the disc.

 

with the pilot you mean.