Manganese Bronze Idler Arm bushing kit

[slosurfer]

I saw this on TOF and thought I would share it here. I was thinking of trying to get some bushings machined for the next rebuild but if someone already has some :D A little spendy but so is wearing out tires prematurely from a front end out of whack. Linky (http://www.custommachiningusa.com/Specialty_Items.html)

:clap: to Mudhippy on TOF for finding these. :thumbup:

[fustercluck]

Hehe. They misspelled 'cam lobes' in the second paragraph....:hillbill:

[Cebby]

They were listening to Lisa Loeb and got cornfused... :D

Interesting idea on the kit, albeit a bit over priced. It appears the kit consists of 2 bushings, a drill, tap, and setscrew.

A. You can buy bushings from McMaster Carr in a gazillion sizes, so most likely the size could be found (for $5-6 each).

B. IMHO, brass would be way too soft for that application. They would get wallowed out in no time due to the torquing force the idler goes through. A brace is good, but the Total Chaos idler is the only bomb proof solution out there (and even that isn't bomb proof)

[slosurfer]

From what I have seen, after getting a brass bushing from McMaster Carr, you would still need to get it machined to the exact size. Not sure what those guys charge, but I am betting that it is more than 60 bucks an hour. I also bet that brass will last much longer than the plastic ones that are in there now. I would say it is a bit pricey, but those plastic bushings don't last for crap! I will try to find it but I did see where some people did make some from oil impregnated bronze and they never had any problems with them.

Edit: After looking at it again, it doesn't say exactly what they are made of. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[slosurfer]

Apparently they are manganese bronze. Should work better than solid brass. It will be interesting to see what years they fit because I think some of the early idler arms use slightly smaller bushings.

[mastacox]

Nice find. I thought about trying to do something like that, but said screw it and bought the TC Arm instead :king: