1982 Honda 185s 2-piece wheel question

[Morg1977]

I have a 1982 Honda 185s that I have been slowly fixing up and getting close to finished (I hope). The most recent change is with the rear tires and rims which I took apart, stripped off the paint down to bare metal, then primered and repainted using engine paint. I previously replaced the front tire and rim (1-piece so no seal worries), so this is only about the rear.

My question is about the joining of the 2-piece rim. I have had several people recommend using a thick bead of the blue RTV to seal it up, which is what I did, but I'm wondering if anyone else has done this or had a better solution. There is no gasket other than the RTV now. Since I just finished this about an hour ago, I have to wait 23 hours more before trying to seat the bead on the new tires. Does the RTV work and hold up well? Is there a better way you have found to do this?

[pinkhippo1]

There's rubber seals that are suposed to go in between them.

[Morg1977]

The ones that were on it crumbled when I took the rim apart. I was advised to use the RTV instead of replacing the seal and told that the seals never work well once taken apart. Just wondering if anyone else has done this and how well it works.

[Georgiabii]

RTV will work just fine. Really no reason you need to wait that long. 24hrs is for full cure. After about 2 you are good to seat the beads in my opinion.

[Morg1977]

Thank you, I've been a bit nervous about it. Would really hate to have to scrape it off and probably have to re-primer the area.

[86125m]

In my experience with two piece rims as long as you clean around the sealing place those seals last a long time and are very reliable.

[RadRod]

Ive always Just replace the O-Ring using a thin film of grease. Silicone will work in a pinch, or if the rim gets bent keeping the O-ring from working.

[Jwheeler]

I always use the O-rings with a little Gasgacinch .You can put air in the tire to bead them up rite-way.I use this stuff all the time with no problems.

[Morg1977]

Ran into a bit of a glitch...I waited the full 24-hours for full cure of the blue RTV and seated the bead on one of the rims. The problem is that for some reason the RTV didn't dry at all, it came out around the stud holes and was as wet as when I first applied it. The current plan is to let them sit a few days and see if that helps, but not sure why it didn't cure, humidity is at 4% here.

[lincolnolli]

Can only tell you my experience with the rtv stuff that is sold here in europe:
Avoid the blue stuff!Its only for that very modern engines to smear that rubber gaskets a bit.So more or less for engines that dont really need silicone from the factory..
That blue stuff will always stay jammy.I have seen this polluting the oil on old carb engines a hunnert times,but thats another story.
Best stuff you can get is the red "gasket maker",thats what i use for 30years now.
Its from stateside by the way,so should be easy to get for you.
The red stuff will turn into rubber in no time,its awesome.I use it on intake manifolds,waterpumps and so on.Where there is more pressure then on our 3wheeler tires.Never had a single problem.
Dont worry,not your fault.the blue stuff sucks..
Ollie

[RobbieThoreson]

I too have used the red gasket maker on many things. Works wonders for sealing just about anything.

[sanchez]

Buy a replacement o ring (hydrolic shop ect) and a little slime. Or tube it yo!!!

[Morg1977]

The Red RTV worked perfectly! I'll never buy that blue garbage again. Thanks for the advice!