Recorking RD6 final drive seals

Hi Mike
I have had a lot of success with plain cork tiles (from a well known hardware chain here in aus). I made all the rocker cover gaskets for the D17000 with them and they have been good. I'm not sure if they will work in the final drive but if you stick them well enough I'd think they'll be fine. I recall a thread here about the replacement for good old cat green, that stuff was gold!!
Cheers
Mark

Hi Hutchy, I was looking at some old threads here yesterday and found those Conservation Bulletins from WW2 where Cat talked about replacing the worn or damaged corks and the material being "cork leather", that glue was part number 3F753 but my parts search shows it not available, I assume it is Bunnings you are talking about, their cork tiles must be fairly big if you are making rocker cover gaskets with them.
Regards
Mike

Mike, The tiles I bought from bunnings were 300mm x 300mm plain cork tiles. I seem to remember a few different options regarding types of finishes ie hi gloss low sheen etc. Stick to the plain ones I'd reckon. They were Pritty cheap too I recall, significantly less than a genuine gasket!!!

Thanks Eddie and Mark for your input, the old seal I removed from this "rough" RD6 as I'm calling it with the Gas 40 back end has 2 layers of cork in the seal area and the total thickness is about 0.350" but I'm thinking that is not the original thickness, to get that thickness I'd need to laminate 2 floor tiles myself.
Regards
Mike

Eddie, thanks for that scan too, I just checked Billy's Cavpower parts searcher and that 5H2471 glue is now replaced by P/N 30540 which is Loctites Black Adhesive, $12.61 for a 147ml can.
Regards
Mike

If you look at these photo's of the old 2 layer seal you will see the protruding rivet heads in the gasket seat area so I'm assuming the cork has to be thick enough to be be pre-drilled slightly so those rivet heads do not influence how the cork lays or else there would be severe bumps in the seal area every 60 degrees, Eddie did those corks you worked with have blind holes to allow for those rivet heads?

I was hoping the RD6 wreck might give me some decent seals but unfortunately not, hey Hutchy, beware if you let Eddie near one of your Cats with a grinder or gas axe, he loves cutting them to bits as you can see in the photo of the RD6 wreck.
Regards
Mike

Is there some reason to not use a standard cork gasket material, such a the many different thicknesses offered by Felpro or others ?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-3008?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKEAiAsJanBRCgnpfa0orvyz4SJAAbxEq-aCngr1RkiZA2uQ9VJnaCMC8NlE6PUg1twKc2uZzNlBoCr4zw_wcB

[quote="josh"]Is there some reason to not use a standard cork gasket material, such a the many different thicknesses offered by Felpro or others ?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-3008?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKEAiAsJanBRCgnpfa0orvyz4SJAAbxEq-aCngr1RkiZA2uQ9VJnaCMC8NlE6PUg1twKc2uZzNlBoCr4zw_wcB[/quote]

Hi Josh, that's a good question as I was just looking at some 3/8" thick rubberized cork gasket sheet I bought awhile back to make new gaskets for my D4 gearbox lid, the sheet was about 1 yard square so I have plenty to play with, and when I looked at my RD6 Parts book the actual cork material on the seal looks at least 2.5 times the thickness of the steel washers the cork rubs on, and those large steel washers are 4.5mm, or 0.175" thick, so if I double that measurement at the minimum I need a cork, or rubberized cork, at least 9mm or 0.350" thick, pretty close to my 9.5mm, or 3/8" thick sheet.

The big question is will that rubberized cork handle the rubbing force of the steel washer, though to keep it in perspective if this tractor does 10 hours a year over the next 10-20 years it will be lucky, and when I first asked this question I assumed the replacement corks would have been available off the shelf in the USA, but I guess no one bothers with re-furbing their seals any more, but even aftermarket seals are or were $215 each from Florin, so by the time I get them here in Oz they will be over $US1,000, that's a few bucks just to fix 4 cracked corks.
Regards
Mike