Ski bushings

[smithw44]

General question here. My front ski's have a ton of slop in them took the bolt out today that holds them to spindle and it appears to be like a 3/8 bolt inside a bushing with a ID of like 7/8 so curious is this the wrong size bushing for the spindle or if the ski's are supposed to be this sloppy?
Thanks

[ljm]

I would say your bushing is wore out

[smithw44]

Any idea where to get new ones? I don't think the right ones are in it they are perfectly worn which I guess is possible but just looks too perfect.

[Matt]

M48105 at the John Deere dealer.

[smithw44]

Any John Deere dealer there few and far between where I live

[smithw44]

Do you happen to now what the inside diameter is supposed to be? Thanks for help

[400brian]

I make new bushings out of thick wall tubing. 5/8" OD 3/8" ID "2 long.

I get the 4130 steel tube from Wicks Aircraft Supply.

[smithw44]

Thanks I ordered 2 from greenfarmparts 9.45 each. Appreciate the help I was considering making them also.

[S_Kyle]

I believe the length length is closer to 1.8" than 2". If I can find my caliper tomorrow I will measure one.

[JDT]

Deere still makes these bushings as they are used on corn planters.

When you replace the bolt use a longer one so that you have no threads between the outsides of the saddle.
Then cut off the excess threaded length.

Add a washer to each end and double nut the bolt .

[400brian]

I believe the length length is closer to 1.8" than 2". If I can find my caliper tomorrow I will measure one.

My OEM bushing measured 1.979" long.

I use aircraft bolts, they are fine threaded, sized so that all the threads are outside the saddle, and are drilled for the use of a castellated nut and cotter pin. I can't get enough of over-kill.

[smithw44]

Thanks for advice where ca u get aircraft bolts local hardware store?

My OEM bushing measured 1.979" long.

I use aircraft bolts, they are fine threaded, sized so that all the threads are outside the saddle, and are drilled for the use of a castellated nut and cotter pin. I can't get enough of over-kill. [/quote]

[400brian]

I get the aircraft bolts from Wicks Aircraft supply. I order them on-line. http://aircraftproducts.wicksaircraft.c ... 6-3-8-24-?

The grip length is the critical measurement. Measure a saddle with a bushing and a tight bolt installed, allow for one washer. The ideal set-up is for solid shank to be slightly protruding the saddle, but you can still get the nut tight( with an additional washer or 2 ). That's how you get the maximum strength out of the bolt. Aircraft bolts are between grade 5 and 8, and are designed to bend before they break. It's perhaps overkill on the sled, but since we started running the Vintage Challenge, I have gotten a bit obsessive about stuff like this.

[JDT]

Brian knows well about this. I hear his sled not only never breaks down put it really flys too.

[400brian]

The flying is one thing...the landing is another.

Seriously, going all the way back to '72, I could say that I had never gotten hurt on a sled. I can really only remember getting bucked off once back in High School, when I decided one night that I could jump the berm of snow pushed up by the snowplow, getting from the road out into a field ( which I now own ). Landed on my head in soft snow, neither myself or the sled any worse for wear. Of course when I tore the '72 down to restore it I found every bogie shaft was bent...but that's another story.

Coming off, just a few hundred yards from the motel on this year's RWTC, was a bit of comeuppance I suppose for the old guy on the mid-mount. Besides being embarrassing, IT HURT! I got the same injury one would get if your feet went out from under you on ice, and you landed square on your tailbone.

It hurt the next morning, not so much to stand or sit, but bending over, or pushing or pulling on something was brutal!
This worked out really well for milking cows, and in the next couple of weeks, I kept slipping on the ice around here and re-injuring things. Instead of getting better, it felt like it was getting worse.

Two weeks after the RWTC, Katy and I did the 25 mi. ride around here locally that I posted about at the time. What I didn't mention was that by about the second mile in, I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do it. My butt was killing me! I was riding with one foot right under me trying to take some weight off, and some of the time I was riding with one knee on the seat. Luckily, about 15 minutes into the ride, the ibuprofen I had took before I left kicked in, and after that it wasn't so much of a problem.

Here's the kicker...since that day, I've felt OK! It was like a "hair of the dog" thing or something. The wife has suggested that I must have jolted something back into place. I don't know what it was, but my butt was cured after the 25 mile ride. Therapy by snowmobile!

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit fortunate about that. I'm thinking it took Don more than two weeks to recover from his encounter with the tree that jumped out in front of him. And Jon Carson told me that his cartwheel across the lake last winter took 2 months to heal, and I know that JDJR is still on the mend from his 2 incidents this winter.

Be careful out there!