MTFCA Forum

What reamer do I need to ream the bushings in the spindle arms for the tie rod bolts? I do not see them listed on the vendors websites.

Scott, I make my own spindle arm bushings from used king pin bushes. The top face is machined down and a thrust face is left so the tie rod has a wear face on which to rest. I bore the old bushes in the lathe and use an adjustable reamer to achieve a neat fit on the pins. I would not like to do this with the split steel bushes.

Allan from down under.

Allan, that is a great idea. Thanks

You need a 9/16" reamer (0.5625") for the spindle arm bushing. A 9/16" drill will "work" but remember, drills do not make round holes, they make holes that are round-ish.

Thanks, I just ordered a 9/16" reamer.

Properly made spindle arm bushings generally don’t require reaming. Sometimes if you get them a little out of line, or raise a burr, you might run a reamer thru to fix it, but they are not supposed to be an undersize bushing that requires reaming like the spindle bushings (kingpins).

I use an expansion reamer with a pilot.

Larry, I use an adjustable reamer and pilot when doing king pin bushes. What role does a pilot play with spindle arm bushes?

Allan from down under.

Where do you purchase properly made bushings? I bought some from Lang's and from Snyder's and neither fit without reaming.

Under 3" in diameter, a standard ID of a cast bronze bushing is plus/minus of nominal diameter by .001" and the OD is .002-.003" over nominal diameter. After pressing one into a 100 year old steering arm of unknown exact size and and dubious roundness, the only sure way I could fit a tie-rod pin without reaming to size is if it the pin was made out of a small tree branch and I was armed with a large hammer.

I must be buying the wrong pins, as I cannot recall ever being able to fit a ground tie-rod pin to either a purchased split steel or purchased cast bronze bushing without reaming it following its installation. In the absence of a commercial product in my hand and wishing to be done with the job that day, with careful measurement of the steering arm to gauge the necessary OD, and with pin in hand to gauge the proper clearance AFTER pressing in (with the attendant ID size reduction), I have fabricated bronze bushings which fit dead-nuts with no trouble or reaming, but never been able to accomplish that with a purchased item.

Now, an oil-impregnated sintered bronze bushing may be a different story with a smaller tolerance on the OD, but I would never consider using such a thing on a joint which recieves the kind of pounding that the steering gear sees. I am only guessing, but that might be what is being bought at some suppliers when one orders a "brass" bushing. If that is the case, it would be a poor design choice. Cast bronze will take a pounding year in and year out...sintered bronze, not so well over time.

I just took a look at the Lang's catalogue picture and it appears to be a cast bronze bush. If that is the case, I'd use it if available and I'd plan on having to ream it when done. I'm not sure I've ever actually purchased one from them as I keep a supply of standard bushings in stock from a dedicated supplier.

The bushings that I have are steel.

I’ve always stocked the complete spindle arm bolt, nut, & bushing kit from Bob’s and probably 8 out of 10 times I put them in I don’t have to ream them. In the cases I do have to ream them, it’s because of a burr or something obviously wrong with the spindle arm hole.

I found over the years that if you press to push in or use a bolt washer type tool to pull them in, that there is less deforming then if you pound them in. I find taking a file and cleaning up any burrs, rust and scale in the hole they fit helps too. That being said, there will still be cases where the OD of the bushing is too big and gets crushed some no matter how installed and will need a clean up cut taken.

I cleaned the hole up with a small hone, deburred the edges, chamfered the bushings and used my hydraulic press, with a bushing driver, to press them in. They did not go in all that tight. In fact a couple of them slipped into the arm a little by hand. If the bushing driver would have damaged them, the bolt would most likely start in on the opposite side. The bushings from Lang's would not slip over the bolts before installing.

Hope the ream you are getting is spiral flute not straight. Straight flute types can be a real bugger to work with when reaming split bushings, the flutes tend to hang up at the split. If the bushings are a slip fit, you may run into them turning while reaming them. Take it slow.

I am doing 2 sets of arms. I actually need to rebuild 3 front ends. The reamer that I bought is a Cleveland straight flute. I could not get the reamer to cut 1 set of bushings. I am not sure now whether those were the ones from Lang's, or the one that came with the new bolts from Snyder's. Those bushings went in tighter and damaged my reamer a little. I had some more that I bought from Snyder's and they were looser in the bores. I had to use Locktite sleeve retainer on them. Some of them did fit without reaming. Others I had to ream, but not nearly as small as those first 2. The straight fluted reamer worked fine on the split bushings using cutting oil.