No they should not slide into the bore with no effort. Both of you failed to mention if the new bushings fit the spring eye. I have to assume that they were loose going in there also? The spring shackles take a lot of pounding and I don’t think there is any thing on the market that will support the bushing for very long. Epoxy’s would break up in a short time, there are urethanes that might work but they are hard to get in small quantities and very expensive.

Locktite used to make a product for filling large gaps when instilling loose bearings. However ball bearings are not subject to the pounding that the spring shackle sees. After Locktite was bought out by Henkel in the 90’s they discontinued this product and others and focused on the most profitable products.

Just as important as whether your bushings fit, is exactly which vendor you got the threaded bushings from? Threads on forums like this are our only opportunity to get the word out to the public about a vendor that is selling bogus parts. God knows that calling and complaining about poorly made part falls on deaf ears most of the time. I find it hard to believe but there apparently is an unlimited customers base out there, so even if a customer doesn’t come back, there’s another one standing in line waiting for parts. I personally know of one vendor that has an employee that does care about correcting ill made parts but even he has a hard time convincing the owner to make corrections.
I can’t go away without saying, that 99% of the vendor ‘employees’ that I’ve dealt with over the past five years in this hobby give excellent service and try their best. They generally don’t have any say so about the parts that they are expected to sell. So I can only assume that the fault with poorly made parts lies at the top where the final decisions are made concerning the bottom line.

Rant over!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL


Denny G
Sandwich, IL