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Sealing Up An Echo Lever


Muel

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I've just got hold of, (I think), one of the first Echo levers, the one that leaked a lot due to the problem with the scored bore for the piston.

Just wondered if anyone had succesfully sealed their's up? And if so, how? Would like very much to save and use it. :P

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Cheers Ross, I think the best bet will be to try polishing it out as it is and using a bigger O ring. Drilling never gives a perfectly round hole, and it's never the perfect diameter. (When you're talking engineering/sealing surfaces).

The ideal solution would be to get it bored out and get a new piston made slightly bigger for it, but I can't get it done. :(

I've got a pretty good idea of what will work, just interested to hear how other people have solved the same problem.

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Cheers Ross, I think the best bet will be to try polishing it out as it is and using a bigger O ring. Drilling never gives a perfectly round hole, and it's never the perfect diameter. (When you're talking engineering/sealing surfaces).

The ideal solution would be to get it bored out and get a new piston made slightly bigger for it, but I can't get it done. :(

I've got a pretty good idea of what will work, just interested to hear how other people have solved the same problem.

I've just been given a mk1 dengura body too...im planning on honing the bore, polishing it and making a new aluminium piston for it (Y)

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I can't get the bore honed. :(

Also theres no way of being certain if the bore is on the same plane as the rest of the lever, so you can't mount it up accurately.

Ah touche, could be a bit of a problem then...errr, polish then slightly larger o-ring i guess then, hopefully you wont get a noticable amount of piston slop? Suppose it depends how much material you need to move from the bore in order to make it smooth and thus water-tight.

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Cheers Ross, I think the best bet will be to try polishing it out as it is and using a bigger O ring. Drilling never gives a perfectly round hole, and it's never the perfect diameter. (When you're talking engineering/sealing surfaces).

The ideal solution would be to get it bored out and get a new piston made slightly bigger for it, but I can't get it done. :(

I've got a pretty good idea of what will work, just interested to hear how other people have solved the same problem.

Use a reamer thats pretty close to perfect...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hand reamer won't work, not the adjustable ones anyway, seeing as the cutting blade edge things don't run all the way to the bottom of the tool and the bore is closed. :(

Any other ideas? I can't get it machine reamed I don't think, and it can't be done by hand unless I buy a tool that's a fixed size, which are rather expensive...

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Only just seen this....

You can renew the bore of a pump by forcing a correct size ball bearing down there, this smoothes the surface and finishes it round; you should then be able to fit a new (possibly larger) seal and job should be a goodun.

You need a ball bearing that is a fraction over the bore size (only talking a couple of thou or so), weld a rod to it and drive it down the bore and pull it out. All being well you should end up a nice smooth surface for your seals to run against :)

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In that case, I need a 13.75mm ball bearing.

Sounds like it's worth a try though, will look into it, cheers Ed!

Dont blame me if it all goes wrong :D

edit: I would do some tests to make sure your weld is good enough, if you pull the rod off inside the bore then youre stuffed, I dont think you can poke it back out like you can on the 04 maggies can you? You might be able to get some compressed air on the back of it though, make a giant caliber BB gun :o

Edited by forteh
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I appear to have made it a lot better, I got a piece of steel rod, cut a slot in it, slotted some wet and dry in there and wacked it in the pillar drill, then polished it out a bit. Will give it another go tommorrow and pop to the shop to try and get an oversized O-Ring for the piston.

Looking good so far though. (Y)

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I appear to have made it a lot better, I got a piece of steel rod, cut a slot in it, slotted some wet and dry in there and wacked it in the pillar drill, then polished it out a bit. Will give it another go tommorrow and pop to the shop to try and get an oversized O-Ring for the piston.

Looking good so far though. (Y)

Thats a good idea ;) bump though? any results muel?

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I bled it by fitting a hose and sucking the water through it with the end in a pot, tasted nice.

I pumped the lever it's full travel for about 5 minutes whilst listening to the radio, and it didn't leak. The bigger O-Ring is a bit tight in the bore though, so I'm planning on taking it out a bit more, hopefully I'll get the deepest scratch out! (From where the spring rusted and snapped and took a gouge out of the side of the bore).

Should be able to test it soon, I have bits on the way that I will be able to use to make a front maggy, so I'll wack that on the T-Pro and see how it fares. (Y)

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You can, but the adjustable ones only allow you to hone open ended bores, this one is closed so the nut and adjuster thing on the end won't let it fit properly.

I could just get a fixed one, then get Daddy to make a new piston for it, but this method has cost me nothing so far. :P

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