TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:27 am

anyone have a life extender technique or product

Sun Jun 19, 2022 7:31 am

Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:00 am

Telford squirts his with Armoral occasionally

Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:22 am

I use Gummi Pflege on all exterior rubber.

Sun Jun 19, 2022 10:24 am

anything that keeps ozone off the rubber

Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:17 am

I’m sure conditioner is cheaper, but you could just buy better boots.

Sun Jun 19, 2022 12:11 pm

richparker wrote: but you could just buy better boots.

And use conditioner just in case. :wink:

Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:33 pm

Lobro 300481- they were I-talian at that
-
-
wasnt gummi phelge the guy that wrote or co-wrote a bunch of early Stones hits?

Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:44 pm

I've used this Zymöl seal conditioner for years and use it for any rubber that needs conditioning.

Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:48 am

Wintergreen oil has methyl salicylate in it. its a natural plasticizer that softens hard rubber and return some of the pliability. I learned about this some years ago rebuilding vintage motorcycles. the intake boots get hard as a rock. there are no new ones, so I tried it and it worked. Xylene and wintergreen in a jar, drop in boots that are hard enough to drive nails with... and next day they are pliable. it doesn't fix cracks but it does soften hard rubber. that bike I ran a couple years and the boots were still pliable when I sold it. I had a test boot that was still OK after about 5 years when I tossed it. there are a bunch of formulas out there with alcohol or water as well as xylene. I have also used the oil straight & rubbed it on with a Q tip but it took longer. the cheap price is when you buy it as horse liniment. there is also some stuff in go-cart racing they put on the tires to soften the rubber for grip and it has methyl salicylate in it as the active ingredient.

Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:12 pm

I had a machine shop colleague who smeared his CV joint boots with Dow #7 release compound. I cannot attest whether this was a good idea or not.

Ray Greenwood? What sayest thou?

Tue Jun 21, 2022 7:36 am

I'll put some silicone spray on them and wipe them down to remove the excess. works for me. :)

Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:18 am

"Ray Greenwood? What sayest thou?"

Right!!? I keep coming back to this post and looking for Ray.
I'm all set to learn all kinds of cool stuff. 😎

Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:04 pm

Almost all of the "emollients" that people use as rubber "conditioners"....are solvents.

That may sound odd....because people think of solvents as hot, highly evaporative liquids like xylene or naphtha. But a solvent for one one kind of rubber can easily just be an oil.

For instance....vegetable oil will screw up a lot of the synthetic rubbers.

A lot of what people are suggesting in this thread...actually work well. The problem is that they start an oxidization process in the rubber. Once you apply these products and they oxidize away...they accelerate further oxidization.

This may not be an issue if you keep reapplying the product to keep sealing oxygen from the rubber.

Classically...Armor all is like this especially on vinyl products like dash pads. Once you start using it, it accelerates the natural outgassing. It will dry out twice as fast....if you do not keep applying it at regular intervals. So if you like what it does for you....keep religiously applying it.

The problem with rubber products like neoprene and Viton is that they are specific to what they can handle. Also....we do not...these days...really know what "blend" of rubber items like CV and ball joint boots are.

I would stay away from products like Armor all ...from rubber boots.

Silicone is ideal for EPDM...but EPDM is not what ball joint and CV boots are made of because EPDM does not do well with VOC/oil based products.....and Viton and neoprene can have slow long term issues with solvents in things like WD-40.....so use pure silicone oil if you use silicone.

A wax like product is actually a good idea. Just look at its SDS to make sure it does not have a lot of solvent in it.

The Dow Corning #7....is basically silicone dioxide. Its like a dielectric grease. Good stuff and should be fairly inert to both neoprene and Viton...and just keeps it sealed from oxygen. Not a bad idea.

Yes....methyl salicylate is a plasticizer for a lot of rubber types...natural rubber especially.....but it can cause swelling with some of the synthetic rubber types. The parts get bigger. This is one of those products thats works....but you have to keep applying it.

I have no real issues with applying anything that you find softens and makes rubber of any type more pliable...but understand...rubber is not like skin. What you are applying...changes the rubber. It attacks it.

If it lengthens the "pliable" lifespan...great...but sooner or later it will kill it. Ray

Thu Feb 01, 2024 7:25 pm

This may be good...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PKV279Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Fri Feb 02, 2024 7:10 am

udidwht wrote: This may be good...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PKV279Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Might be.

One of its ingredients is silicone so it's a silicone spray. One of it's ingredients....a large one....is LVP....low vapor pressure petroleum solvent. It has a proprietary ingredient that is toxic with long term use to keep it off of yourself and don't breathe it.

One interesting thing is that the TDS and advertising says it can be used on window gaskets and sliding windows. NO....it can't.

Vehicle window gaskets of most types including RVs are made of EPDM. Petroleum/VOC based solvents eat EPDM.

Ray

Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:59 am

I put Gummi Pfledge on half my empi CV boots years ago, and I forgot which ones I treated.

Good new is they're all ripping evenly.

Robbie

Fri Feb 02, 2024 1:02 pm

I use 303

https://www.goldeagle.com/product/303-aerospace-protectant/

Fri Feb 02, 2024 2:35 pm

Maybe AT-205 re-seal ?

Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:58 pm

I can relate to several bad out comes from incompatible rubber and lubricants, usually from excessive releases.