My beautiful new shocks (for ‘62 cb77) came with no top bushings among other things. Rubber from bushings in old shocks was unusable, dry, crumbly, holes worn way off center.
After some pondering and tinkering I figured out that a common garden hose washer would fit pretty well, just stretching a little, over the stud that holds the top of the shock. I found a socket about same size as the hole in top of shock, got some metal washers and a deck screw and screwed hose washer with socket centered on top to a short 2x4. Then cut around outside of socket with a sharp x-acto to produce a rubber washer with outside diameter slightly smaller than hole in shock to allow for stretching. After vandalizing most of my garden hoses for prototype parts and trips to home depot and the grocery store I came home with three kinds of hose washer and a selection of o-rings. I settled on red rubber ones as sturdiest, then made 12 of them.
By trial and error I came up with combination that works for me: Install a full size black hose washer on frame end of stud, then a #12 o-ring (5/8” ID x 13/16” OD) for spacer, then three cut down washers. Then slide on shock top, then carefully work three more cut down washers onto stud and into shock top, then finish off with another #12 o-ring and black hose washer.
Pictures tell the story. When cap nut is tightened up, washers expand and shock top is held very tight with no play in any direction. So glad to get this figured out, maybe it’ll help somebody else with rotten shock bushings. I have no idea if this method or some variation will work for CLs or CAs.
Attn. Experts: does anybody see anything wrong I’m missing here? Got a better way or suggestion for improvement? Thanks, Lee
rear shock bushings for cb77
rear shock bushings for cb77
Thanks to your idea, when I was looking around the tool bench I found this bolt and two metal washers that were the correct ouside diameter I needed for the bushing. I used masking tape to build up the bolt to fit the inside diameter of the rubber. I chucked it up in the drill and used a wood rasp to bring down the rubber to the size of the metal washers. When the rubber was the same as the washers, I had the correct size bushings.
Gunner
glad to helpGlad my idea helped. Looks like you improved on it, washers are bound to come out rounder your way, clever. Post pic when installed? I'm interested in how you finished it off. You must be getting close, me too. Wahoo! -- Lee
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