swing arm spindle, how tight?

Grease don't hurt the bushes they love it, the issue is getting enough grease in there w/o modification of the factory oil drip system. Clean em with solvent or detergent then return to service with heavy oil as can find or put bigger holes in the spindle and feed it grease via the oil zerk.

after an email with fred from old britts today to pick his brain, i didn't realize the size of the oversized spindle was so sticking close to the standard. I'm going to take the spindle to my shop tomorrow and measure it to be sure i don't have an oversized spindle in there!

kevbo82 said:

after an email with fred from old britts today to pick his brain, i didn't realize the size of the oversized spindle was so sticking close to the standard. I'm going to take the spindle to my shop tomorrow and measure it to be sure i don't have an oversized spindle in there!

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A possibility perhaps, but wouldn't you think an oversized spindle wouldn't go through the stock bushings before they're pressed in to the swingarm? Unless the difference is truly tiny: what is the actual difference in size? If the crush effect on the bushing is such that it changes the bushing's ID from a hand insertion to only entering the bushing 1/2" while sticking so badly it must be tapped out, and it turns out you have a stock size spindle, then I think I'd agree with rpatton:

rpatton said:

I've bought new bushings for the swingarm that were out of spec. The spindle fit in the bushing before the bushing was installed in the swingarm, wouldn't fit after. Got new bushings from a different source and they were fine. If they have a significant interference fit then you can remove material from the outside of the bushing and see if it can be made to fit, but why bother? Just get new bushings and check before you soak'em, so you can send them back if you need to.

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I put in a oversize spindle and it did not pass through the standard size bushes at all.

i checked my spindle today and it is the standard size. Standard is .8745, oversized is .8795. i bought these from old britts, they're from andover, fred sent an email to andover and forwarded me the reply today

"The swingarm bushes are sintered, and made to finished size on very accurate tooling so to fit a standard diameter spindle no reaming is required. However if the customer has a +.005” oversize spindle in order to fix a spindle that is loose in the cradle the bushes will have to be reamed as of course will the cradle – no reason why they shouldn’t be."

so since my spindle is standard, and fits old bushes in the swingarm, and fits the cradle, but doesn't fit through new bushes in the swingarm. i think my only choices are, use the old bushes and put it back together, or use the new bushes and have them reamed to fit the spindle. I think they're going out of round when pressed into the swingarm. i think taking it to my local machine shop so it's new bushings with a nice snug and straight fit is the way to go.

Can't argue with that, unless you get a guy who's inclined to be impatient while doing it - like I was back in the day. Seemed like every time I'd get the job of reaming kingpin bushings when I was in my teens working in the family shop, I'd eventually get bored reaming and fitting and decide I had a long way to go yet (measure?.. what's that?), I'd dial in a bit more of a bite than I'd been using and, sure enuf, the next fitting was too loose.

VintAge said:

Can't argue with that, unless you get a guy who's inclined to be impatient while doing it - like I was back in the day. Seemed like every time I'd get the job of reaming kingpin bushings when I was in my teens working in the family shop, I'd eventually get bored reaming and fitting and decide I had a long way to go yet (measure?.. what's that?), I'd dial in a bit more of a bite than I'd been using and, sure enuf, the next fitting was too loose.

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Nah this guys good, he just did king pins for me on a 56 ford they were wonderfully done, bit pricier than I thought at $80 though...he said he's actually going to use a ball hone instead of reaming since they fit outside the swing arm and are more just squeezed out of round