Quote:
Originally Posted by bbrocksr
Kevin, You say you should never ream the bushings,Thats how these cars were built at the factories and they lasted a long time when lubricated properly and the factory manuals specify reaming when replacing bushings.
Are the engineers that built these cars wrong?
Bill
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Which factory manuals and where did you read they used reamers?
I am not saying they did not use the reamer in the factory. Early manuals would have you use a reamer because the Sunnen hone type device was not very common.
As mentioned a reamer can do the job. The factory is likely to have used a reamer on a fancy machine that reamed and burnished to size. Every thing was held tight and the reamer was not allowed to move so it could not chatter. As pointed out the right type of reamer would do a very good job, but they are more expensive. The factory could have also had a precision cutter and a jig and then burnished them. I do not know what they have done so if someone has the factory info please tell me where I can read about it too.
SO comparing what the factory did to what we can do in our shops is not a very good comparison.
We can get down to some very special distinctions in the various reamers. Number of flutes, shape of flutes, how much the various shapes will be affected by the grease groove and such. We would get way off the track.
For this discussion we need to focus on what would be accessible to the general population. Certain realities.
The average guy has two choices.
A reamer or machinist with a (hopefully) precision tool.
The reamers come in all sorts of designs. If you get a used one from a flea market who know what you are really getting. Straight flutes and enough lead to hopefully get the pair of bushings lined up. I have several of those laying around. Brattton's sells a spiral fluted unit for only $139 for 2012. It is custom made in Canada. I have not heard how good it works.
Now you can also spend about $40 to pay an experienced guy to hone the bushings to size. I do not know about costs my brother has two Sunnen hones so I just hand them to him. They should be round and inline when done. Can he screw them up, sure. The reamer in in-experinced hands can mess up a lot too.
So for the average guy the best value is paying someone with a hone. Those with access to a reamer go ahead and use it. In either case, check your work.
Short of knowing for sure the type of reamer and the experience of the guy doing the reaming, I would always have to push someone to have their bushings honed.