CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Willie]

With all threads lately about failing 9500LC bellows I thought I should check mine; sure enough after removing the lens there was seepage on 2 of 3 tubes. The leak is around the perimeter of the lens mount on both of them.

As a short term fix could I apply a thin layer of a silicone sealant over that seam?

Not sure I am willing to incur the expense of having these rebuilt at this time; maybe later this year. FWIW, the tubes are P17's and are perfect.

What are my options?

Thanks,

Willie

[cmjohnson]

The tube assemblies need to be removed and the pressure vented via the fill screws on the top of the casting. I'll bet that if you probe
the bellows with your finger, it's very firm to the touch, even with the leakage.

More likely, the leak is seepage through the bellows material.

Bellows are now unobtainable from VDC unless you send in the whole assembly for refurb, which is a ripoff. So you must
save the bellows if you have to do any work on them. Use Nashou66's technique to remove the bellows without damaging them.

Soon, new bellows should be available via a second source. But not yet.


I had a large stock of bellows at one time. If I needed to replace one I just cut the old one off and never gave it a second thought.
Why not, when I had 200 or so in stock?

CJ

[Ohmess]

As you know, moisture from the air can leach into the glycol through the bellows, and this can increase the pressure inside. Thus, you need to check to see that there is not built up pressure within the bellows. Curt's got an excellent post on bleeding in the advanced procedures here. If this hasn't been done in a while, I would do this. I left about 4cm of air at the top of my tubes when I did this last month.

While you are looking into this, wipe away all glycol you see, including the condensation appearing around the outside of the bellows. This will enable you to see what is going on in the future. If you have a leak thereafter, then its time to think about further steps.

For what its worth, I wouldn't think a bead of silicone around the exterior of the bellows would work. I would determine exactly where the leak is, remove the bellows using Nashou66's excellent instructions, and reinstall with a fresh bead of silicone (and you only need a tiny bead) if you have to seal a leak.

[Nashou66]

When opening the screw fill holes on top make sure you have a big towel all around the fill hole and surrounding area because as the above posters state, some pressure can be built up and when you release the screw it can shoot out all over the place. Any on the electronics can cause the board it contacts useless. And its usually the back plane, which takes over 3 hours to get to, its a complete tear down.

PS. If you want to help out with the Bellow Drive, click the link in my signature and answer the poll.

Athanasios

[Willie]

Thanks for the replies. I did not realize the glycol would seep through the bellows material. The bellows are fairly firm to the touch; I will be bleeding them later today.

Willie