HerbertFriedman
Member III
Looking for gasket material for "old standard" Lewmar opening portlite, part no. Z3712. Listed in Catalina parts dept but no longer available, anyone know a source or replacement?
All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the people you've met online!
See the link below for login credentials and join us!
(dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)
You will need something like foam rubber. The correct gasket is about 5/16" thick. McMaster Carr has a selection of "Ultra-Weather-Resistant EPDM Foam Cords" in convenient lengths, which might work if you can find a good way of securing it in the portlight frame.do you think that a simple O ring glued into place would provide a seal?
Yes, Lewmar calls the "fin" on the back of the gasket an arrowhead because that is what mostly it look like and agree that getting the old one out and them removing all the sealant that should have been squirted into that cavity must be quite a challenge, especially if EY used something evil like 5200. Just the thought of replacing the port lite with the new standard unit just because of an O ring gets me really upset. I dont know why Lewmar did not use something simple like a standard O ring in a standard O ring groove, I guess O rings like that could fall out but a tiny bit of sealant in the O ring groove would have fixed that.I have friends that have replaced all the gaskets on their 80's Lewmar ports. Very Difficult. That factory gasket has a "fin" on it to lock it into the metal groove. What friends said was that it was quite difficult to get the 'fin' to seat in the required groove.
Admitted Bias -- I replaced all the '88 ports on our boat in 2021. IMHO, the sealing and latching system on the new design is far superior to the old ones and there is no inside plastic trim piece to get brittle and fall off (or any need for one).
On the question about using a simple O ring....I dont know why Lewmar did not use something simple like a standard O ring in a standard O ring groove, I guess O rings like that could fall out but a tiny bit of sealant in the O ring groove would have fixed that.
Without a standard O ring groove, I am not sure where the sealing surface is, aside from the seal between the window and the front face of the gasket. Maybe the seal is in that small cavity into which the "arrowhead" is jammed, after sealant is pumped into that cavity . So putting double sticky tape on the side and bottom of where the O ring sits may or may not give a seal. But it is easy to try and easy to remove if the seal is not good.For securing the gasket to the portlight, you might want to try double-sided "basting tape". If it works, great, and if not, there's no great loss in material cost or effort to remove. The stuff is surprisingly sticky. If you choose to use some other adhesive, you probably need to put it only on the surface which is parallel to the lens. If the gasket were glued instead to the surface which surrounds the lens, closing the lens could be difficult and could damage the gasket.
One additional note: Tony at Hatchmasters suggests using lip balm (Chapstick) on the gasket where it touches the lens. I had told him that sometimes when I opened a portlight, the gasket would stick to it and get pulled out of place. The lip balm prevents the gasket from sticking to the lens.