Yamaha YA-1 Resurrection

[Yamanatic]

Gasket time! I am sure many here probably already do it this way, but just in case it has never come up...
Smaller gaskets are easy; make a tracing and get out the Exacto knife and hole punch, and go to it. But if a big gasket (like a clutch cover) is needed, it can be a real pain to get right. OTC gasket material comes in a roll, which makes no sense because gaskets are flat. Here's a method that usually works first try:

To start, the gasket material is flattened (sort of) using a hot-water soak then laid out on a piece of board with the side-cover on top. Next, several drywall-type screws are ran into the board through the cover's bolt-holes, and tightened down to hold the gasket material firmly sandwiched between the cover and board. Then using a box cutter (my preference), cut around the OD giving the exact shape that looks pro on the edge that will show after installation. 
      
For screw holes (which can be quite deep), a long 6mm drill bit is used, with the angle on the cutting ramps reduced to about 10-degrees to stop he bit from grabbing and tearing the gasket; this minimal angle on the bit is also used for drilling screw holes in plexiglass windscreens without causing stress-cracks or spidering. There was only one hole in the YA-1 gasket, but that's rare. The cover is now un-screwed from the board (by now the gasket has mostly flattened) and the ID is cut. 

A pencil-compass (like those is used to draw drafting circles) is set to the width of the gasket face, and ran around the entire OD to mark the inner margin and give a point of reference. For screw bosses the 'dirty-finger' method works well; with the cover pointing up and the gasket blank held in position with the case screws, press very firmly around the inside curves of the boss edges and your fingers will leave a 'dirt' mark to trace around with the knife. To cut the ID, the box-knife was used except for the Exacto knife for tight curves - curved drafting protractors make excellent cutting guides. And that's it!

Next, the cover gets a trip to the wet-slurry blaster to erase the battery-acid etched cover (wet leaves a very original finish), and the kicker and shifter get re-plated. The pure (99.44%) zinc anodes arrive in a few days for the home electroplating process on the levers. Nickel is too 'gold,' and does not look like the bright cadmium used in the day - zinc is almost cad-white when polished.



Warren