Kips sub shaft o-ring

[Chuck78]

Hey Jamie, I'll take you up on that offer, email sent!
Do you have Venmo or PayPal? Shipping + fuel/time.


Great to see your nice looking hybrid build there as well, & in the woods looking very enticing, especially with everything turning green outdoors!

All of our trails in the state and national forests around us were supposed to open today, but they have delayed the opening due to serious flooding of creeks all over... We're heading to Kentucky in 3 weeks to ride the national forest there where most of the trails are high up on the ridges, which brings out another issue, storm damage from trees getting blown down across the trail near the ridgelines where the winds are highest...

I'm excited to get back out in the nature and do some braaappin'!

I received the Fredette O rings today...



i got to take the bike out for a couple of hours this afternoon. The weather was really nice and the motor felt in top form. Powervalve is definitely functioning properly and gone is the popping on decel and hanging idle i had last week when running the worn out OEM 'packing' seal. This O ring seems like a winner if it holds up, and if it doesn't, I'll try the same size made in buna.



I have a bag of 49 of these things so if any of my fellow KDXers want a couple to try, i'd be happy to send them to ya for the price of postage.
Just send me an email: jamiethegiraffe@gmail.com

[jamiethegiraffe]

Thanks or the email chuck, I have a stamped envelope with 3 o-rings ready to go for ya. Happy trails! Don’t forget your folding saw

[Eric B]

I ordered 25 of these silicone o-rings - https://www.oringsandmore.com/silicone- ... um-25-pcs/

Will report back on how things work out. Happy to mail out some to folks as well.

[Chuck78]

Thanks or the email chuck, I have a stamped envelope with 3 o-rings ready to go for ya. Happy trails! Don’t forget your folding saw

I received these today, THANK YOU!!!!!

[billie_morini]

jaimethegiraffe, THANK YOU! I received o-rings from you.

[billie_morini]

I ordered 25 of these silicone o-rings - https://www.oringsandmore.com/silicone- ... um-25-pcs/

Will report back on how things work out. Happy to mail out some to folks as well.

Thanks for sharing information, Eric B. It'll be interesting to hear what you say about these Extreme Heat Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) o-rings. The dimensions are 5mm ID x 8mm OD x 1.5mm C/S. These are the same dimensions as the silicone o-rings jaimethegiraffe purchased from Ebay (forum thread p. 6). This makes them very similar to the "Fredette" o-rings. My eye tells me the Fredette o-ring may have a C/S of 1.6 mm, but it could very well be 1.5 mm.

The ID and OD are spot on. The C/S appears a bit slim in the wider rod groove. But, jaimegiraffe did some leak testing and riding with a silicone o-ring having the same dimensions. It worked.

jaimegiraffe and I are looking at a slightly wider silicone o-ring. However, it's inner diameter is about 0.5 mm less than the rod groove diameter. If you are interested, I'll send some of these to you. Notify me here with your mailing address, if you would like to receive 3 or 4 of these o-rings: billie_morini@ yahoo dot com

Note for chemists & physicists: Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) o-rings are carbon-fluorine bond with one of the best thermal, oxidative and chemical stability of fluorinated polymers.

[Eric B]

Thanks Billie_morini. I will likely take you up on that offer.
I have not received my silicone o-rings yet, but did some measuring.
The bore of the kips shaft measures.315 with gage pins.
Matches the measurements taken by another poster.
#8 o-ring on the kips shaft measures about .330-.328 on the OD. It’s really reluctant to go in, but there is no real edge break where the .315 diameter starts.
Seems like a lot of squish needed.
I also found a 4.5 x 8 mm o-ring. (1.5 cs)
It’s only .312 diameter when installed, so that size won’t work.

[Eric B]

Finally received the o-rings I ordered.
5 x 1.5 mm
They measured about .220/.222 installed on the Kips shaft. A bit of hi temp grease on the bore, and the it goes right in. Not much drag. Leak test is as it should be.
The question now is will the o-ring hold up.
I usually replace the rings every 100 hrs(piston 200 hrs).
Will report back on any change in performance.

[billie_morini]

Hi Eric B,
sorry, I failed to see your post on 4/18. Please forward your address to me using this forum's private mail or yahoo address ( billie_morini at yahoo dot com)

[Chuck78]

Hey billie, thanks again I received your second envelope with the other options in it, thank you again kind sir!

[billie_morini]

Hey billie, thanks again I received your second envelope with the other options in it, thank you again kind sir!

Chuck, hooray and you're welcome!

[jamiethegiraffe]

I received some of the 4.5 ID x 8 OD x 1.78 CS o-rings from Bill. Thanks Bill! Unfortunately the 4.5mm ID is just too small and causes the O ring to swell to a massive .335” when installed on the shaft. Too large to even enter the bore.
I’m including a picture of the OEM packing seal, my 5x8x1.5 eBay o-ring, the nearly identical FRP O-ring, and Bill’s 4.5x8x1.78 o- ring (left to right). Just FYI, the eBay o-ring and the FRP ring both measures .320” installed on the KIPS rod. The OEM packing seal is used and measured .316” as best as I can tell.

IMG_7333.jpeg (3.16 MiB) Viewed 5556 times

[billie_morini]

Jaime, hooray and you're welcome!

Thank you so much for fitting the wider o-ring and sharing your observations. Due to combined efforts, now we can all know the wider o-ering is a No Go.

So far, we have one o-ring option verified by Fredette and at least 2 KDX forum members.

It's anticipated that additional information, including fitment analysis following rod groove machining, about x-rings.

This forum is fortunate to have deeply interested and clever members.

[KDXGarage]

This is a terrific thread you guys have made. THANK YOU for helping out everyone.

[billie_morini]

Look! More dividends beyond the leak test jaimethegiraffe reported a short while ago:

viewtopic.php?t=26483

[JZ05220r]

I have a used seal and very lightly used seal. Almost brand new… I took some careful measurements. At least the best I could do…

NEWER SEAL: ID-5.3mm OD:7.85mm
Width:1.8mm Cross section: 1.275mm.

OLDER SEAL: ID: 5.4mm OD: 7.95mm Width 1.92mm Cross section: 1.275mm.

Hope this helps.

[billie_morini]

Thanks, JZ. Your measurements are similar to those made with illustrations by kawibunga on page 2. This corroboration is a benefit to our forum.

It appears we have an o-ring that works. Verification of performance longevity is in-progress. While it was Jeff Fredette that clued us on, but don't know the replacement frequency he employs.

It also appears we may have an x-ring that works with minor machining to the righthand power control rod. This effort remains underway. Additional measurements, machining, fit testing, and motor operation are not complete, yet.

[JZ05220r]

Thanks, JZ. Your measurements are similar to those made with illustrations by kawibunga on page 2. This corroboration is a benefit to our forum.

It appears we have an o-ring that works. Verification of performance longevity is in-progress. While it was Jeff Fredette that clued us on, but don't know the replacement frequency he employs.

It also appears we may have an x-ring that works with minor machining to the righthand power control rod. This effort remains underway. Additional measurements, machining, fit testing, and motor operation are not complete, yet.

For what it’s worth I got a quote from a local rubber seal manufacturer and the set up cost is $1250. Not something I have the patience to dive into to be honest. I think aftermarket part manufacturers would benefit from including a reproduction of the packing seal in their top end kit. I’d easily spend an extra $10 for a reproduction of the packing seal that probably only cost a dollar or so to make. I contacted various aftermarket manufacturers such as cometic, moose racing, and all balls to try and convince them.

[Kawibunga]

$1250 isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but still not worth it for an enthusiast unless ya got wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket! My apologies for not getting more info out sooner. Got my latest batch of orings from Billie in a bit ago, so thank again for that Bill. I have amachinist buddy stopping by Friday. I'll give him the drawing to mod the shaft for an 008 Xring, and will post the results here as well as the drawing incase someone else wants to do the same thing based on it............ stay tuned!

[billie_morini]

$1250 isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but still not worth it for an enthusiast unless ya got wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket! My apologies for not getting more info out sooner. Got my latest batch of orings from Billie in a bit ago, so thank again for that Bill. I have amachinist buddy stopping by Friday. I'll give him the drawing to mod the shaft for an 008 Xring, and will post the results here as well as the drawing incase someone else wants to do the same thing based on it............ stay tuned!

Thank you, Kawi, for this update. I can't imagine anyone is bugged about what you've done or not done. It's understood there's a day job and family to attend to.