What's Your Best Gasket Remover

I'm struggling with old gaskets on a disassembled carb (happens not to be a motorcycle carb, but I've had the same problems with bike carbs in the past).

What is your best gasket remover?

So far, carb cleaner, acetone and lacquer thinner have not easily dissolved the old (well in excess of 15 years) gasket bonded to the aluminum carb body. I'm rubbing, scraping, soaking, and repeating all these, but the thought of trying to remove a large gasket on my bike makes me pause.

Have you tried a razor blade? The type with the blade on one side only.

+1 on the single edge razor blade. It's what I use. In tight places, I use a small Xacto handle with the narrow chisel tip. That works well around float bowls where the PO glued in the gasket rather than replacing with a new one.

This is the stuff I use along with paper towels. Use gloves when working with it.

+1 on Al Gully's suggestion, I've used that before with good results, but a long time ago. It will bubble and dissolve the gasket material and make a bit of a gooey mess, but it works.

Thanks guys, the Permatex is the kind of solution I was looking for. I got the gaskets off by soaking them (the whole part) in lacquer thinner for about an hour - that softened the gasket and then a razor blade did the rest. But I spent at least two hours playing around with the part trying to get the gasket off (including soaking). A scotch brite pad ended up doing the best job - soaked in lacquer thinner. But this technique would not work for a larger part - and carb cleaner was worse than the lacquer thinner - it simply did not work.

Al Gully said:

This is the stuff I use along with paper towels. Use gloves when working with it.

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Gloves and lots of ventilation. Nasty stuff but it works.

In my earlier post I made the comment that I used it a long time ago, as in back in the days when they sold stronger chemicals than we are given access to today.

Here is the current product description:

"Permatex gasket remover easily removes all gasket sealants such as form-a-gasket, spray-a-gasket, high tack, and Indian Head sealants and dressings. Foaming action and easy-to-use brush tip. Nontoxic, low odor, nonflammable. Safe-to-use around pets and children. Can be sold in all 50 states, No VOC."

Hopefully it still works as well as the stuff I remember that was toxic, high odor, flammable, not safe around pets/children, and had lots of VOCs.

here's what the label used to say last time I bought it:

Generally, I find that fast evaporating solvents like toluene, lacquer thinner, acetone don't work nearly as well as slower evaporating ones like naptha...... at least on adhesives or adhesive residue. I have used a gasket remover in the past and it works too. Gaskets are perhaps a little more challenging because they have a paper or other material that is naturally resistant to petroleum materials like oil... time, heat, pressure 'cures' them. Anyone tried GooGone, Simple Green or a paint stripper to soften them up so they can be scraped off with a good scraper? I use a gasket scraper (sharp and stiffer than razor blade scrapers) which tends not to gouge aluminum.

RaYzerman said:

Generally, I find that fast evaporating solvents like toluene, lacquer thinner, acetone don't work nearly as well as slower evaporating ones like naptha...... at least on adhesives or adhesive residue. I have used a gasket remover in the past and it works too. Gaskets are perhaps a little more challenging because they have a paper or other material that is naturally resistant to petroleum materials like oil... time, heat, pressure 'cures' them. Anyone tried GooGone, Simple Green or a paint stripper to soften them up so they can be scraped off with a good scraper? I use a gasket scraper (sharp and stiffer than razor blade scrapers) which tends not to gouge aluminum.

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I'm not a fan of GooGone any more - it doesn't work for me unless I can get the tape off and am only dealing with the adhesive residue. And simple green is good if you can soak something in it overnight (I use it on circular saw blades then scrub them w/ scotch brite). This is probably not a good idea for a carb and hard to do with something large like the clutch cover gasket on the front of the ST's engine. Read on below for paint removers.....

dwalby said:

In my earlier post I made the comment that I used it a long time ago, as in back in the days when they sold stronger chemicals than we are given access to today.

Here is the current product description:

"Permatex gasket remover easily removes all gasket sealants such as form-a-gasket, spray-a-gasket, high tack, and Indian Head sealants and dressings. Foaming action and easy-to-use brush tip. Nontoxic, low odor, nonflammable. Safe-to-use around pets and children. Can be sold in all 50 states, No VOC."

Hopefully it still works as well as the stuff I remember that was toxic, high odor, flammable, not safe around pets/children, and had lots of VOCs.

here's what the label used to say last time I bought it:

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No Methylene Chloride? Can't be any good today. Sadly a lot of the chemicals that gave us cancer, killed kidneys, and otherwise were simply flammable or explosive also did exactly what we expected of them - they removed goop quickly. Paint removers contain Meth Ch - but that is going away. I'd expect paint remover to work on gaskets but it is often too dangerous to use on a carb or engine. Many years ago I read (maybe in Smokey's Garage? anyone remember that?) that some of the solvents used to clean carbs and engines would damage aluminum and diecast metals and should be used sparingly. I think those days are long gone (or were they referring to lye and TSP?) but surely we still have some chemicals that should be used sparingly.

Yeah, I think there's a world of difference between inhaling/contacting these chemicals 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and people like us who touch it a few times a year or so. For weekend warriors, bring on the hard core chemicals, nothing like cleaning grease off your hands with Berryman's with open cuts on your fingers.

All I can say... carbon-tetra-chloride.

Awesome stuff.
Cleaned tape heads and carburetors.

No more...

dwalby said:

Yeah, I think there's a world of difference between inhaling/contacting these chemicals 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and people like us who touch it a few times a year or so. For weekend warriors, bring on the hard core chemicals, nothing like cleaning grease off your hands with Berryman's with open cuts on your fingers.

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I have the gallon dunk tank of Berryman's. One time I couldn't find my gloves and just quickly reached in to grab a part. That was 5+ years ago and one of my fingernails has never recovered. Did a good job of cleaning carb jets though.

jonz said:

I have the gallon dunk tank of Berryman's. One time I couldn't find my gloves and just quickly reached in to grab a part. That was 5+ years ago and one of my fingernails has never recovered. Did a good job of cleaning carb jets though.

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What happened Jeff, did it take the gloss off of your nail polish???

Pardon my ignorance, but what is Berryman's? If it is a currently available degreaser, it must have had its teeth pulled like all the rest of the chemicals.

SMSW said:

Pardon my ignorance, but what is Berryman's? If it is a currently available degreaser, it must have had its teeth pulled like all the rest of the chemicals.

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https://www.berrymanproducts.com/products/eco-friendly-products/berryman-chem-dip-carburetor-and-parts-cleaner/

I imagine they've changed it over time but I can't say for sure

I used that chemical in the US AirForce for about 4 years 1961 to 1965 with no glove protection and I'm still here 73 years young 6 bikes later and just bought a 2000 st1100. I just got back from the Dragon Tail. It's a good idea to ware gloves.

I wouldn't be without my Blue-Point PKR 40 scraper.
I haven't found a gasket tougher than this little beauty and probably around ?10.00 delivered with spare blades. Look on Amazon.
Every tool kit should have one.
Hope it helps, the chemicals sound a little scary......and I'm not easily scared.

Chemicals aside I wonder if an ultrasonic cleaner would remove old gasket material, assuming you could find an affordable unit with a proper sized immersion container.

HF has one for $80, but may be too small for a carb body. http://www.harborfreight.com/25-liter-ultrasonic-cleaner-63256.html

I have had good success with MEK.