Hi all,
Has anyone had any experience with using new old stock swinging arm silentbloc bushes on their bikes?
My bike is a 1967 A65 Lightning and I ordered two new 42-4362 large bore (for hollow swinging arm spindle) bushes from Draganfly motorcycles. Unfortunately they only delivered one and put the second bush on back order, with no idea at all of when they will have new stock.
I have searched high and low on the internet and cannot find anywhere else with any stock.
The only thing I have found is Vale Onslow are selling N.O.S. bushes on eBay. They do not say how old they are, so I am cautious that they could be quite a high number of years old and as such the rubber may have deteriorated. I have read that rubber only has a finite shelf life.
I would appreciate your thoughts and advice on this subject.
Thanks, Kev Ev
Certain types of rubber does have a finite shelf life and degrades when exposed to UV light. That's why O rings and the like are (or should be) stored in black bags.
However, renewing the silentbloc bushes is not a common everyday thing like the greased type bronze bushes which wear as the work on a moving surface. So, my theory is the ones that are still in lots of our old bikes and are perfectly serviceable have been there for a very long time without degrading. Why? probably because they haven't seen daylight since assembly in the factory.
Chances are the ones at Vale Onslows have been 'in the dark' for as long as they have had them so should be OK.
Hope that helps
Chris
Thanks Chris,
It makes sense.
Hi Kev
Since my previous post, I have looked on Feked's website and they have a pair for £54.95+vat. I don't know how that compares to Draganfly but they sell them in pairs.
Have you tried Kidderminster Motorcycles and C&D Autos? Both very good for A10 spares.
Hi Chris,
I saw the ones on Feked.com but I'm not too keen to do business with them.
After experiencing problems in the past with a set of balance tube exhaust pipes I bought from another supplier, on which the balance pipe would not line up by a long way when the pipes were fitted to the cylinder head and frame, A few weeks ago I made a query regarding the exhaust pipes that feked.com sold and in their response to me they said that they cannot guarantee their exhaust systems will fit. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
I emailed them last Friday to ask if they had some stainless steel fork oil seal holders in stock and they replied that 'yes they had them in stock', so I went ahead and ordered a pair the following Monday. On Wednesday morning my bank account was debited with the £100.68 I paid for the pair of oil seal holders and on the same afternoon feked.com rang me to tell me they did not have any stock of the stainless steel oil seal holders but could offer me them in chrome.
I said that I didn't want chrome ones and asked for them to cancel my order and refund my payment. I only placed the order because they told me they were in stock. Since then I have received an email from feked.com saying that my order was cancelled due to a problem with the payment process? I rang them and asked what was going on because there was no problem with the payment process and the money had gone to them from my bank account. They told me that it had been refunded to my Paypal account. I then told them that I didn't use paypal and paid by debit card. I am still waiting for my refund and do not have a great opinion of feked.com.
I have had shall we say unsatisfactory dealings with Feked on a number of occasions. There is of course the small claims court to fall back on.
There are some dodgy bushes on the market where the centres don't align. Draganfly are also a sod for this with sending half an order out without any pre warning.
Send that bush that you have back to them and order a pair from SRM, they will also fit correctly.
Hi Allan, SRM would have been my first choice but unfortunately, like many suppliers, they do not have any stock of the 42-4362 large bore silentbloc bushes.
Thanks to Chris's advice I contacted C&D Autos and Kidderminster Motorcycles and although C&D had no stock someone rang me back from Kidderminster to tell me that they have a pair in stock, so I will be sending the single bush back to Draganfly and I'm sorted.
Great timing because, just before the Kidderminster phone call, Andy from Triple S in Bingley rang me to tell me my powder coating job on the frame and other bits was ready for collection, so I shall be picking it up on Saturday morning and my rebuild will commence. Great turnaround by Triple S, I only took the parts to him last Friday, so under a week. First class!
Cheers guys.
Hi Kev Ev,
I have changed my A10 and A65 recently all went well, (part number 42-4362, bizarrely I have a single one left over). Be aware some inner sleeves supplied have been too long, measure and cut before fitting because you won't get them out in one piece if you fit them too long.
Best wishes...
For all my parts I always try Kidderminster first. Never had any problems with them.
Chris
Thanks for pointing me towards them Chris.
The thing that impressed me is that the guy rang me back to tell me that he had the parts in stock within an hour of me sending him an email.
Over the last few weeks I have had very delayed responses from suppliers that I have emailed with questions. Sometimes no response at all and when I have rang these suppliers to ask why no response they have all blamed the covid-19 situation for making things too busy for them to respond in the 'usual' time.
Now I know that some people are short staffed but as a key worker who has carried on working since this pandemic started I can only say that my colleagues and I have not had a problem answering emails and customer enquiries. I do think that for some it has just become and excuse for their poor service.
Well done Kidderminster for showing that it can still be done, if you can be bothered.