Another leak. Long story, but I'm missing the gasket that goes between the upper and lower parts of the housing. It has a 2 1/2" center hole, for the larger 261 bypass thermostat, and the off center bolt holes. Does anyone know where I can quickly find one? Maybe I have to make my own? I have found expensive complete gasket sets that seem to have one. Other vendors improperly offer just that gasket for the 235 housing with the smaller diameter thermostat. And they say it's for a 261😡
I've made untold hundreds of gaskets with nothing but a piece of gasket paper and a ball peen hammer. Use the housing as a template and the ball end of the hammer to gently tap out the shape of the gasket. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
What Jerry said. Never had proper gasket paper, but a cereal box or even a hat box (for those who wear hats and not caps) has the proper thickness and fiber to make gaskets. A ball peen hammer to cut the gasket out of the material of choice then the proper empty cartridge case to punch the bolt holes out. Used to be common practice.
I went "high tech" a few years ago and bought a well-used set of gasket punches from Ebay. With a little sharpening, they're good as new. A slab of hard maple or red oak is just the right hardness to get clean cuts without dulling the cutters excessively. The thin cardboard backing piece from a pad of scratch paper is about the right thickness for most gaskets like thermostats, fuel pumps, etc. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Made one years ago for a thin gasket need. Rear cover of a Playboy Magazine was just the right thickness. I too have made a lot of gaskets over the years. A 4x4 cut off about four inches long and stand with the grain up, works good as a chopping block for hole punches or cartridge. Like Jerry said, take a ball peen hammer and tap out the housing pattern, then cut it out with a sharp utility knife. If you have a set of hole punches, all the better.
Don
Last edited by 2-Ton; 01/07/202112:52 AM.
1967 GMC 9500 Fire Ladder Truck "The Flag Pole" In the Stovebolt Gallery '46 2-Ton grain truck | '50 2-ton flatbed | '54 Pontiac Straight Eight | '54 Plymouth Belvidere | '70 American LaFrance pumper fire truck | '76 Triumph TR-6 Of all the things I've lost in my life, I miss my mind the most!
