Another Half Moon question

[Ricko19]

Hi kids,

doing the valve clearances at the moment. Have a new OEM valve cover gasket to go on when its all done too.

The half moons that are in the bike now look ok and have never leaked, but the tops of them are covered in old gasket stuck to them, and I don't know that I could remove that stuff without damaging the plugs. So I'll probabaly end up having to order some new ones.

Has anyone has any problems with the Z1 aftermarket Half Moons, or should I go for OEM ones?

Do you absolutely HAVE to put sealant on them? The last guy who changed the valve cover and half moon gaskets put enough sealer on to sink a battleship, and its going to take me ages to clean up the mating surfaces on the cover and head

[Raven457]

I am using the aftermarket ones fromn Z1 with no problems

[sharpy]

If there new shouldnt need any stuff.

[Ricko19]

Cheers Raven The OEM ones are a lot more expensive so its good to know the Z1 items are good.

Cheers Sharpy Will reply to your PM shortly.

[Nessism]

If you carefully scrap off that old gasket chunk (use your fingernail, not a metal scraper) you can reuse the old half moon after you put a skim coat of ultra silicone or three bond sealer on the curved portion. Worked for me anyway.

[Dogma]

If you carefully scrap off that old gasket chunk (use your fingernail, not a metal scraper) you can reuse the old half moon after you put a skim coat of ultra silicone or three bond sealer on the curved portion. Worked for me anyway.

That worked for me too, a couple times. I use a little sealant on the round side, to help hold them in place.

The new parts I got from Z1 (Vesrah) stood up above the gasket face about 1mm when new. I clamped the cam cover onto them overnight without a gasket to squish them into place/size. I don't know if that's necessary, but I was installing a silicone RealGasket too, and I didn't trust it compress the half-moons.

[Ricko19]

sorry for the tardy reply - haven't been well.

cheers for the replies guys. I've ordered a new set of half moons from Z1 which will be here in about a week - a LOT cheaper than the OEM ones from the dealer here.

cheers

[SqDancerLynn1]

Haven't seen them in a long time, their used to be someone on ebay that sold
an aluminum version of the 1/2 moons, very trick !

[jskellington]

Yeah, I too thought the aluminum half moons looked pretty, so I bought some last year. Even with a good coat of threebond, three of the four immediately began leaking . . . I had a hunch they weren't going to work as I was installing them -- way too much play, so I placed a Bike Bandit order for OEM replacements.

As I recall, the aluminum half moons came from overseas -- Germany or Holland.

[sschering]

I got a set of OEM plugs from a local bike shop for around $15

Where I got burned was the valve cover gasket.. the bike shop could get OEM gaskets for $15 but only in packs of 5.. The dealership got me for $30 on that one.. ouch.. shoulda ordered it online.

[Ricko19]

They stung me $66 for ONE OEM valve cover gasket. Half moons were $10 each plus GST (10%)!

Got the set of 4 half moons from Z1 for $16 AU including postage from the US - bit of a difference!

[BeerMonger]

I can produce aluminum half moons on my cnc router. If someone knows what grade aluminum to use, and help me verify dimensions, I could produce some. Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of a rebuild and have oem half moons in their package. So I should be able to reproduce it easily enough.