Steering knuckle bushings

[BADSLED]

I am well are there has been quite a bit of emphasis on improving stock front end ball joints by aftermarket shops. However, after closely examining my front end on ’09 XTX my issue appears be extreme play on worn out bushings within the two steering knuckles on ski mount bolt. This may not be an issue with less aggressive skis (such as stock) but having an aggressive style C&A’s requiring more steering effort my bushings are severely worn resulting in unwanted steering play.

Is there an aftermarket shop that sells an improved bushing set over current stock? For now I’m considering replacing them with another set of Yamaha but can’t see it lasting long.

 

[ralger]

You can search the topic, there have been a few guys that have made their own. I am sure they will chime in.

I looked into machinging my own, but it is very thin walled and split walled to allow for expansion so I went with these from McMaster Carr. They are cheap and easy to replace. They are also longer than the OEM ones so there is more bearing surface.

They tightened it up really nice.


Part Number: 6679K19 $3.08 Each
Material
Bronze

Bronze Type
Steel-Backed PTFE-Coated Bronze

Type
Sleeve Bearings

For Shaft Diameter (Inside Diameter)
16 mm

Inside Diameter Tolerance
-.034 to -.016 mm

Outside Diameter
18 mm

Outside Diameter Tolerance
+.000 to +.018 mm

Length
20 mm

Length Tolerance
±.025 mm

Load (P Max)
250

Speed (V Max)
2

Load at Speed (PV Max)
1.8

Temperature Range
-328° to +536° F

Specifications Met
Not Rated

 

[BADSLED]

Great, I will look into it. Thank you..

 

[DaveRX1]

The Mac master Carr bushings are a perfect fit and do eliminate 99% of the spindle bushing slop.

I highly recommend these

 

[BADSLED]

The Mac master Carr bushings are a perfect fit and do eliminate 99% of the spindle bushing slop.

I highly recommend these

Thanks for the feedback. I will order mine tonight..

 

[stopdropanroll]

Just ordered them, hope this helps. Now I just have to get the old ones out.

 

[ralger]

I used a deep socket and a vise to push them out (I believe it was a 1/2"). They came out alot easier than the lower ball joints.

Because they are longer than the OEM bushings (needing to have perfect axial alignment), I actually ended up having to press the ski axial in on one side. I loosened it up by inserting a bolt through the axial and tightened down with a nut. Then a cordless drill to wear it in until it was a perfect fit. Absolutely no slop.

After installing the NCI ball joint sleeves and new knuckle bushings, I found the next area of play was in the Fox Float bushing mounts. I bought some bushings from McMaster for that as well. The front end now has ZERO play.

 

[stopdropanroll]

My buddie made me a tool to press these out (he's a machinest) made it from tool steel, I was hoping to get these out without removing the spindle, maybe pressing them I guess.

 

[nytroD]

so the stock ones come out easey but the mcmaster ones go in hard and require reaming out the hole entill they fit just rite????

 

[ralger]

The McMaster Carr are the exact same size (O.D./I.D.) as the OEM. But, they are longer. They go into the knuckle with no issue. What I saw was the ski axle went into the new bushings a little tight (which, is what we are looking for) due to center to center alignment between the two bushings per knuckel. But, I wanted to make sure the axle moved freely in the new bushing.

 

[nlh]

I think you'll find the tolerance on these bushings are fairly wide as I installed these last season on my nytro. It did tighten things up a bit but I was surpised at how much slop was still still in the system. Of course there could also be a fairly wide tolerance on the spindle bore's as well.

When I say "fairly wide", A couple tenths (.0002) one way or another makes a big difference with this type of bushing.

Still well worth it rather than paying the price for OEM Yamaha parts.

 

[DaveRX1]

I used a long punch and hammer to remove the old bushings (quick and easy) I pressed the new ones in with a piece of 1/4" threaded rod and two nuts and washers.

 

[nytroD]

will they fit the Phazer? my 07 seems to be way worse than the Nytro with half the miles.

 

[stopdropanroll]

Bushings showed up yesterday, put them in and WOW the ski axle is nice and tight....now more slop!!! Be careful when installing these, if you dont clean out the bore its easy to damage the bronze coating on these, good thin I ordered 2 extras!

 

[ralger]

Here are pics of what I did to tighten up the shock mounts. The urethane bumpers were deformed pretty bad so I added a bronze bushing. It required turning down the shock axle and increasing the ID of the bumper. I set it up so the bronze bushing was a presss fit into the bumper and the bumper was a press fit onto the shock. It worked really well.