Itinerant Air-Cooled

After so many years of service I have noticed that my S-Boot is starting to crack. On the lighter side the crack is located at the end where it overlaps the airbox and is adjacent to the clamp.

I am looking for suggestions for a material that will seal and possibly hold so that it does not continue to progress. I dont think RTV will do the job, then again I may be wrong.

What you got?

Pat

Mulcheese wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 28, 2017 6:12 am

After so many years of service I have noticed that my S-Boot is starting to crack. On the lighter side the crack is located at the end where it overlaps the airbox and is adjacent to the clamp.

I am looking for suggestions for a material that will seal and possibly hold so that it does not continue to progress. I dont think RTV will do the job, then again I may be wrong.

What you got?

Pat

The emergency road repair method is to procure a tube of Ultra-Black RTV (it is a matte finish not the shiny stuff like the regular black). Clean the S-boot thoroughly of any oil, inside and out, and allow to fully dry. Open the crack with a judicious bend and apply the rtv into the crack. Relax the bend and smear some additional rtv in a broad swath to improve your grip surface area and allow to cure. Make sure that the airbox has its rubber grommet on the vertical support and is clamped down correctly, and wth, make sure your engine mounts are not broken.
Colin

keep your eye open in the classifieds at Samba. They come up for sale in good condition. I glass bead them to clean them, check for cracks and store in a ziplock bag. The chemicals in the ziplock bag seem to have regenerative properties on the rubber because over time it becomes more pliable. Spraying with silicone spray before putting into the ziplock helps too. Then you have a spare next time one cracks. GeeBee makes a nomex and silicone replacement too. There is also a repop viton one but I have not tried it. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds ... id=2036209

You could try the airheads replica. The equivalent 75-79 Bus one worked for me:

https://www.airheadparts.com/VW-Volkswa ... 83%C2%BDRP

I have an 82 Vanagon and have the airheads repro and its great !
https://www.airheadparts.com/VW-Volkswa ... 83%c2%bdRP

At the moment the boot is still intact and the crack has not broke all the way through so I think to pro-long its life I will use the RTV as Colin has said. If and when it does bust I will check out Airheads. Great source guys

Thanks
Pat

Another product that might work for this is Liquid Electrical Tape. Though I love Ultra-Black and use it for many things, I think the Liquid Tape might be a better hardness match to the rubber on the S-boot. It's tough as all heck when cured.

Note that I haven't tried this myself, so usual disclaimers apply: this product may stain or discolor or melt or warp or dissolve or not be a pleasing colour match to your S-boot.

Mulcheese wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 5:32 am

At the moment the boot is still intact and the crack has not broke all the way through so I think to pro-long its life I will use the RTV as Colin has said. If and when it does bust I will check out Airheads. Great source guys

Thanks
Pat

That philosophy has bitten many who own buses and vanagons. The assumption is that if a part is for sale today it will also be tomorrow. I stalled on a VW NOS 091 differential last winter - Weddle had many for a little over $500 a set. Today they are double that and not nearly as many left. The TS2 was like that - they were $12 each, then $16. I bought a half dozen. Then six months later they went NLA in an instant and the prices went to like $100 each. Now only repops are available. Saw the same on a repop alternator harness. NLA NLA. If the price is right snag a repop or good used one now and store it. You can get more miles from yours but have the spare. BTW if it cracks all the way thru and you don't catch it the engine will go lean and that can cause a hole in a piston in as few as 20 - 50 miles (or less if you are climbing a grade at the time and the lean mixture starts to detonate.)

Quite true. Both viton, one is 40.00, and one is 50.00, cheap enough to buy and install, repair the old one as a spare, monitor and report back to your fellows in this NLA endeavor.