John: I have been running an LA 15 for about ten years.

I removed the backplate gasket when I bought it, sealed it with a bead of silicone sealant and it has never leaked.
It has around 300 flights.

Bob Z.

I cleaned it up, applied a little silicone sealant, and reinstalled the back plate.  The motor was now binding and would barley turn over.  An inspection determined that the crank pin was hitting the back plate.  It appears the reason the back plate was leaking is that that it was loose to prevent it from binding.  Another funny thing when I started to clean the engine with alcohol the blue color started to come off.   Some one has sprayed painted this bugger.  I hadn't thought about it before but the head and upper fins have turned black.  Like I said before the engine is a good runner.  The insides appear almost new.   As always this was an eBay special I scored cheep.

Is their any reason that I can't shave the back plate till it clears the crank?  Also I will try and strip off the paint.  Can't be good for cooling.  Hay cheep is good when you can get it to run! 

Sounds like it's been in a crash on the remote needle and warped the back plate? The plastic backplates I have don't use a gasket and don't rub. I put large area flat washers under the bolts and don't over tighten and no leaks so far.

Who was it that made all those metal backplates for the LA engines?


MM