Kips sub shaft o-ring

[Pwgator7]

Does anyone know if there is an alternative for the o-ring 43049-1076 it's no longer sold and mine is toast. It's causing an air leak on the right side. 1995 kdx 200.

[Kawibunga]

Some info here from past posts, but it's basically an oddball wide seal/packing kind of like and XRing but stretched. like 2 orings stacked together. I had used an off the shelf oring in mine, but haven't tested it yet so I might be in the same boat! Think it's a 2.5(C/S) x 5.5 (ID) oring that works........... (hopefully finally fire it up this week)

I will have to take some detailed measurements at some point I guess and look at what it would cost to get some made. Might be possible, have had lots of customs seals turned in the past (downhole tools R&D Oil and Gas industry background) but nothing quite this small. Normally these are moulded but that puts costs way too high. Guys have had readily available orings work, but they are sloppy in the groove width. But ya never know, they might work great, somebody can chime up with their experiences!


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[jamiethegiraffe]

i know this is an old one, but I'm having this same issue. Would love to know if anyone has found a suitable replacement that will seal up the right hand KIPS subvalve shaft. I know some people like to say it doesn't matter, but in my experience it definitely affects the way the bike runs- particularly at WOT

[jamiethegiraffe]

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[Kawibunga]

I'm on a bit of quest with this. Looking to see if I can potentially mould a seal. They make some pretty good two part moulable compounds now that might just work. Have reached out to two companies, will keep ya posted if they have a material I can try! If it's doable I'll make a bunch.

Copying the seal design and creating the mould is no problem. Finding a mouldable substitute for Nitrile 70 or similar is the challenge.. thanks for the reminder on this and stay tuned!

[jamiethegiraffe]

Definitely keep me posted! I would buy a bag of em if you’re having some made up.
Here’s what I did that worked this time around:
Bought the smallest nitrile o ring I could fit over the shaft. Even with some stretch, the OD was still too large to fit the shaft bore in the cylinder. I used a bench grinder with a wire wheel to sort of “turn down” the o ring until it was just barely larger than the shaft. It made for a nice tight seal but didn’t make the power valve assembly bind up at all. Don’t forget to grease the “packing” as per the manual.

[KDXGarage]

I was just about to ask if one could shave down a too-large o-ring to make it into something resembling the OEM part.

What about some rubber, then one of those gasket making punches and drill out the center??

[Kawibunga]

Turns out you can't get a two part mouldable material to do it.......... from Smooth-on anyway..... one other company I may try. Response below........

"Hi, Robert.

Unfortunately none of our materials will do what you need this part to do. The temperatures are too high for urethane rubbers and the hardness is too high for silicones.

I wish I could be of more help,

Dave Heaton
Smooth-On Technical Support"

[Kawibunga]

Onto plan C.........

JamietheGiraffe - favour to ask - would you (or anyone else) be able to give me some precise measurements so I don't have to tear my machine back down.

I'm looking for the following - preferably in inches, measured down to .001" precision
Groove Width
Grove Diameter on the shaft
Seal Bore diameter

WIth this info I'll draw up a proper seal and I'll get a quote on 100 & 500 pieces - pricing might not be as bad as I'm worried about for shops that are setup for this. And side note, I do this sort of thing for a living, but usually for 10,000 psi 350°F applications. So the design part I'm not worried about, it's comes down to pricing. Thanks!

[Chuck78]

If this doesn't work out, perhaps we could turn down the shaft groove in a lathe to fit a readily available o-ring size that's a normal stocked item at industrial suppliers?

[Chuck78]

Partzilla shows this to be available for purchase stating that it ships in 3 or 4 days, meaning it's coming from Japan. I believe Partzilla is the largest distributor of most of the Japanese manufacturers in the USA, and I believe they ship out to dealerships as well as consumers, as my friends had a vintage Japanese bike salvage yard and they would deal directly with Partzilla at wholesale prices. Perhaps Babbitt's or others don't have the same depth of information available as Partzilla? Also I had heard of some things that Partzilla supposedly had in stock, but actually did NOT have available in reality. Either case could be true.

https://www.partzilla.com/product/kawasaki/43049-1074


CMS Netherlands shows it as temporarily unavailable....

I see posts back to 2018 stating they were having difficulty obtaining this seal/o-ring.


I have a few containers of a bunch of assorted metric and JIS nitrile o-ring sizes. When I get my shop space cleaned up and have a minute, I'll try and look to see if I can find something appropriate, but I'm trying to get a vintage Suzuki ready for AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days festival in 2 weeks as well as tearing down a friend's KTM 200 and fixing the previous owners engine rebuild mistakes...

[Molly's 70]

I just ordered 2 of the packing rings. We will see if they show up or not.

[Kawibunga]

If this doesn't work out, perhaps we could turn down the shaft groove in a lathe to fit a readily available o-ring size that's a normal stocked item at industrial suppliers?

Hell of an idea Chuck, like I work at a machine shop for gosh sakes! I was way to focused on the seal and never considered modifying the groove. Like the outside the box thinking. I'll look into it (when I pop the rod out) and will share any changes I make.........

[Molly's 70]

Well, the 2 packing rings I ordered from partzilla was a no go. They just gave me a refund.

[KDXGarage]

Molly's 70, thanks for the report.

[Chuck78]

Well, the 2 packing rings I ordered from partzilla was a no go. They just gave me a refund.

After American Motorcycle Association's annual AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days Festival in 8 days, I'll dig out my oring assortment and my spare 220 engine in pieces, and see if I can measure this packing ring and come up with a solution from my JIS & metric o-ring assortment kits. They're pretty extensive, from The O-Ring Store I believe. That solution may be doubling up on o-rings or may be chucking up the shaft in the old metal lathe...

[Kawibunga]

So I went to order a spare shaft so I could tweak the groove and have a spare - partzilla showed it available. But they be gone! No longer available. So I won't be pulling mine apart to investigate this until winter.......... does make a purchase like this tempting though
Ebay 96 KIPS Assembly

[Chuck78]

I don't know what's going on with Kawasaki and partzilla, but apparently they are showing a lot of things as available or available within a few days, but people are saying that their orders are getting canceled when they try to order these things. $700 worth of OEM parts in my shopping cart at Partzilla right now, I bet half of them would get canceled if I submitted that order now... Best to check CMSNL.com instead, as they seem to actually show an accurate availability status. It seems now thanks to covid or no thanks to covid rather, the time has come where a lot of our aging OEM parts are drying up from new OEM stocks, and will have to be sourced used or through aftermarket companies like BDK power valves and KXpowervalve.com

[KDXGarage]

Rocky Mountain shows availability better and had better prices when I last ordered OEM parts. I used partzilla for years, but no need anymore.

[Kawibunga]

Rocky Mountain shows availability better and had better prices when I last ordered OEM parts. I used partzilla for years, but no need anymore.

I've never given them a try for OEM parts - will do so next time for sure