So everyone knows what a sloppy piece of junk the plastic clutch fork bushing is. While attempting to grease the thing up last week I looked over at my TWM brass linkage bushings and thought, why not replace the plastic bushing with brass?
After spending some time on mcmaster.com I finally found something I thought would work; an Oilite brass flanged sleeve bearing. Oilite brass is porous and contains up to 20% oil by volume.... perfect!
The stock bushing measures 16mm ID x 21.9mm OD x 31mm L with a 6mm thick flange. The flange bearing I picked is 16mm ID x 22mm OD x 20mm L with a 3mm thick flange.
The length difference has no effect on its function except maybe surface area friction which is less with the brass bushing, which is a good thing. The 3mm difference in the flange thickness doesn't matter (see below).
The brass bushing fits over the fork shaft perfectly, no play at all but not tight either. The outside diameter is just a little too big (0.1mm) to slip into the hole in the transmission though. I had to hammer it down using a socket on an extension which I wasn't too thrilled about since it will be extremely difficult to remove, but not impossible. I hammered it down just past the splines where is gets to its full thickness. This left a small gap under the flange that can be used to help pry it back out if needed.
I put everything back together and took her for a spin...... :3_nosthum
If anyone is brave enough to want to try this, I have three more of the brass sleeve bearings since I didn't want to place an order for only a single part. You can have one for cost plus shipping which would be like $5 total. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for anything that goes wrong if you do this.
After spending some time on mcmaster.com I finally found something I thought would work; an Oilite brass flanged sleeve bearing. Oilite brass is porous and contains up to 20% oil by volume.... perfect!
The stock bushing measures 16mm ID x 21.9mm OD x 31mm L with a 6mm thick flange. The flange bearing I picked is 16mm ID x 22mm OD x 20mm L with a 3mm thick flange.
The length difference has no effect on its function except maybe surface area friction which is less with the brass bushing, which is a good thing. The 3mm difference in the flange thickness doesn't matter (see below).
The brass bushing fits over the fork shaft perfectly, no play at all but not tight either. The outside diameter is just a little too big (0.1mm) to slip into the hole in the transmission though. I had to hammer it down using a socket on an extension which I wasn't too thrilled about since it will be extremely difficult to remove, but not impossible. I hammered it down just past the splines where is gets to its full thickness. This left a small gap under the flange that can be used to help pry it back out if needed.
I put everything back together and took her for a spin...... :3_nosthum
If anyone is brave enough to want to try this, I have three more of the brass sleeve bearings since I didn't want to place an order for only a single part. You can have one for cost plus shipping which would be like $5 total. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for anything that goes wrong if you do this.