Neck gasket replacement

Tools of the trade

Two patch jobs on my neck gasket. The second one failed so it was time to put the new gasket in. I had gotten the above disks from Brian who made them up for the purpose. They are an improvement on the cardboard used in the Vimeo clip that shows the entire neck gasket replacement. I won't go into details as the clip is very useful.

So I took the old gasket out and fitted the disks but noticed the drysuit material I was going to glue the gasket to wouldn't sit flat. I saw too many opportunities for things to go wrong. I instead used an old garden pot through the neck opening and stretched the gasket over and into place. It lined up perfectly.

I applied glue and the gasket started to creep out of position. After much sweating between the toes, I stabilized it and it cured perfectly.

The next time I do this though I'm going to use Brian's disks (I'm gonna cut my own set) because in hindsight I think its the best way to go. Its a case of doing it yourself in order to learn.

The disk sizes (l-r) are: 10 1/2 inches; 8 inches and 9 1/2cinches outside diameter with an inside diameter of 6 1/2 inches. The big goes inside the neck opening in the drysuit; the smaller goes inside the neck gasket to keep it open and the ring goes over the gasket flange. I expect when weight is put on it, it flattens out the material for a leak proof fix.