Hi Folks,
Having heard tales of pattern bushes having wortse clearance than old, worn ones I thought I'd make some to fit properly. My old ones look like some sort of bronze, but I've seen new ones advertised as brass. Does anybody know what they should be? I'm guessing that it may not make na huge difference, since there's no high rotating loads involved.
Cheers
I would not use brass, use a phosphor bronze. If you do make your own the outside diameter of the top bush is specified as slightly greater than the lower to be a light push fit in the fork bottom, otherwise you may get movement between top bush and fork bottom tube as well as movement between bush and fork shaft.
The other point about new pattern or new old stock bushes is that they cannot compensate for over 50 years wear in the shafts and the fork bottoms. The fork assembly needs to be considered as complete assembly and worn parts replaced or refurbished.
Very true and I'm still trying to figure out how far to go. The forks felt very good before I stripped them and wear on the stanchions is visible but less than half a thou. The bushes also looked very good but the lip on one of the bottom bushes had sheared off.
I'll break out the bore gauges today and see if I can assess the condition of the sliders.
As an aside I'm amazed at the number of parts dealers advertising c15 stanchions as c15/b40. While it's true that the c15 competition models used heavyweight forks, all the ones I checked were selling stock C15 ones. Same story on the bushes and very frustrating.