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Drilling a stock TB bushing sleeve ??

Y

yossarian19

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Grass Valley, CA
Does anyone have experience drilling an axle side bushing for a larger bolt? The axle bracket is wallowed out to ~11.5 mm at its widest, so I am thinking to drill it to 12mm or 1/2".
My sticking point with the plan is boring the TB bushing sleeve out another 2.5 mm or so to 1/2" - think I can get away with doing this in one shot or do I need to pony up for a 1/2" bit + a step in between? Hate buying single-use drill bits...
FWIW, I plan to do this with a Dewalt corded 3/8" drill without taking the bar off of the frame side bracket. If need be, I have a drill press available to me - though I'd hate to F with it if I don't need to.
 
I need to do the same thing. Only problem with that is that you can only address the front side of the hole. Seems it would be better to weld a 1/4" thick plate to the front of the bracket then drill the hole to a close tolerance and tighten the piss out of the bolt. Yous till wouldn't be able to address the back side of the bracket but it would be a tighter tolerance than the washer.

Been trying to figure this out for a while now.
 
fix the front, slide the bolt through with a washer inside the bracket on the backside, weld in place.

granted its only gonna be welded one the bottom 1/3 but beats nothing?



:dunno:
 
I wonder if there is space to slip some 1/8" or bigger plate in the back side of the bracket & weld that in place as best you can.
By the time I'm done measuring, sketching, cutting drilling & welding, though, I could have run a 1/2" bit through the axle side & bored out the sleeve too. Figure that it took 11 years of salted winter roads + 120K miles to wallow out the stock 10mm hole. Even if I'm only bolting the stock thickness material, that 1/2" bolt is going to last a long time before I need to add material.
Assuming, of course, that the stock bushing sleeve will accept this much of a bore.
Any experiences here?
 
I've tried to drill thru a bushing sleeve before... I almost broke my arm so I gave up. Those sleeves are HARD and the bits like to grab the little nipples on the inside.
 
Drill a snug fitting hole in a 1/4" plate for a stock track bar bolt. Trim the plate to fit the TB bracket and weld it on.

.
standard.jpg
 
Shrug. My welding skills = the suck, so I'd be paying somebody else to do it right. To me it comes down to how much time I'd spend boring the TB + how much $$ for the drill bits vs how much time I'd spend making the tab / how much I'd pay somebody to weld it.
Nobody has had success drilling through a sleeve?
 
You could always replace the bushing/sleeve and drill the bracket hole larger?
 
Hadn't thought of replacing the whole bushing. Anyone know who makes one with a larger sleeve?
 
RE makes a TB bushing in 1/2", not sure if it will fit a stock TB though

Also for the flag nut, I just cut down a cheap wrench, and tacked it to a nylock nut, works great!
 
Cant seem to find pictures but we welded a plate on the front and then cut open the bottom part of the bracket to get a plate in on the back side and wasnt able to weld that in entirely but was able to get it on the bottom side and a little tack on one vertical side.

then we plug welded to fill the holes where the origional bolt hole was drilled and ground down nice and flat .. i havent drilled it out for the t bar bolt yet .

mine had a broken t bar mount.. on my buddies that was wallowed out we tried drilling that sleeve in a drill press and either couldnt get it to cut or if we ran it hard enough to cut it would get too hot and start melting the bushing .
 
Ok - I'm stubborn as heck but think I found a solution that works for me.
Moog part # K3176 is a two piece poly track bar bushing with a separate sleeve. $11.35 shipped from Rockauto.com
The sleeve being separate means you can chuck it up in the drill press & get it done without melting your bushing. Alternately, you can bring it to the machine shop and let them deal with it (if a drill press isn't convenient / you don't have the bit selection)
Alternate part numbers for the same thing:
ACDELCO Part # 45G26004
RAYBESTOS Part # 5791004
 
I've used one of those in the past. That sleeve shouldn't have the nipples on the inside of it and I see no reason why you couldn't drill it. Sounds like you have a winner.
 
If you're going to have somebody do the welding work, why don't you ask them to weld a new bracket in place of teh old one? You got options there, like aftermarket replacements, cutting a piece of u-channel, etc
 
Use a ball joint tool or a bench vice to press out sleeve out of the bushing, go to lowes and pick up a 1/2in ID sleeve that you can press back into the bushing. Shouldnt cost more than 5$ for a sleeve that fits.
 
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