Jack writes:  Part of my preventive maintenance chores for this year are to
change out 
the (slightly) leaking pushrod tube seals on my 81 Westy, which I did 
this past weekend.  Noticed that there was lot of silicon sealant around 
the seals, but chalked that up to sloppy work on the PO's part.  Well now 
they leak MUCH BETTER than they did before and I'm wondering if there's a 
technique to this that I'm not aware of.  Any advice would be greatly 
appreciated as I plan on staunching the flow this coming weekend.
Jack

Jack,
        I've always sealed my pushrods with permatex copper silicone, the
ultra high temp stuff, along with the new o-rings. It seems to increase the
interval between doing this particular job. I clean all the oil from the
case and pushrod tube grooves with brake cleaner and paper towels then put a
bead of the copper stuff on the o-rings. Then I install the tubes and put
more silicone in the space between the ends of the tubes and the heads and
case, wait 24 hrs and drive. Hope this helps also I wear surgical gloves
when squishing the silicone all over the place it sticks like hell to your skin.

Rick Koller
'90 syncro Westie
'81 air-Westis 
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Richard Koller
Email: rkoller@helix.nih.gov
Phone: 301-496-8414
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