Idler Arm Bushings, JWE Tensioner Slugs

[hcoles]

Dear Pelicans,

I may have been guilty of high jacking other threads with my hyper focusing on idler arms. So I thought I would start one here because I'm making new bushings from scratch and others may want to try this. Along with the new bushings, I'm going to install spacers that limit the very large travel the idler arms have and don't need. Also I'm going to be making and installing "Jerry Woods" slugs - these go inside the tensioners and limit the travel to 1/8". A side bar will be that I'm making a torque wrench testing apparatis. I'll be posting a few pics on that.... I would say I'm about 85% done.


1) idler arm bushings - machined SAE 660 bushing material to within abut 4-6 mils ready for honing. This turned out to be a bit tricky as I may have gone over on one. Also I didn't cut the bushings to lenght yet, so parting off the end may be an issue. I'm also trying to find out more about bushings....I'm assuming there are better materials out there since about 25-40 years ago when Porsche decided on what they would use. Note - the original bushing is a split type....yes and on my car the pressure point landed right on the split....this may not be an issue.

2) JWE slugs - no progress to this point other than OSH is out of the bushing I need to start with or I may go to the bearing house and buy some cast bushing stock.

3) Idler Arm Spacers - discussed with the real machinist and he thinks this is a good idea...of course I'll still leave room for a reasonable amount of float not the huge amount in the original design.

4) Torque Wrench Tester - I'll post pictures tomorrow or from work today. I started this because it costs $30 min. to get a torque wrench calibrated, and then it's only on at one setting. More on this later if people are interested. I was just trying to follow Wayne's book and have my wrench checked...and I thought to myself...hey I can make a thing that will work...you'll see.

I can split these subjects up but I didn't want to start so many threads.

-Henry
top end and re ring 1989 3.2
soon to start reassembly....

[hcoles]

Here is a picture of the torque wrench tester.



Here is a picture of making from scratch bushings before and after amatuer machining before cutting off and honing




More later.

-h