Upgrade Your Proactive Idler Wheels

[garserio]

For those of you with Proactive suspensions (2005 Vector, Nytro and 2007 RTX), you know the warping problems with your inner idler wheels near the center shock. Yamaha did not design in a tough enough set of idlers. The outer idler can be upgraded with no modifications, but the inner ones require custom machining of parts to fit in larger wheels.

I have come up with a way for the average Joe to perform this modification themselves. The solution would include a set of custom aluminum idler wheel collars and fixturing that would allow you to accurately remove material from one of the suspension arms to give clearance for the larger idlers. (The fixturing would allow you to correctly do this with common tools like a belt sander, bench grinder, angle grinder or even a hacksaw & file)

I am trying to judge how much interest there would be for a kit like this before I order the custom collars from a local machine shop.

I AM NOT TRYING TO MAKE A PROFIT OR START A BUSINESS! I NEED TO DO THIS FOR MYSELF AND ORDERING MORE CUSTOM COLLARS WILL BRING MY PRICE DOWN WHILE PROVIDING OTHERS WITH A SOLUTION.

So here is the deal. A set of custom collars and grinding tools will cost around $100. If a lot of people are interested (> 10), the price will most likely come down since the majority of the cost is for the custom collars.

I AM BASICALLY TRYING TO FOLLOW THE "GROUP BUYING MODEL" THAT WAS SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED LAST SEASON WITH SOME OF OUR OTHER TY MEMBERS.

Right now, I'm just trying to gauge interest levels. I am obvioulsy taking financial risk with complete strangers on this site. So, to the skeptics of my pure intentions, please keep your comments constructive.

I am going to prototype my solution and can hopefully post pics soon. This should give you more confidence in my offer.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[maddogjeff]

Pics would help, I don't really understand what you're offering.

I would think it would be easier for someone with a lathe to offer a fast turnaround service to machine the mounts and pivot brackets.

 

[garserio]

Pics would help, I don't really understand what you're offering.

I would think it would be easier for someone with a lathe to offer a fast turnaround service to machine the mounts and pivot brackets.

Thanks for the comments.

1. The fast turnaround idea is a good one. I don't have a lathe though.

2. Explanation for the new collars: The one problem is that when you machine away the 0.060" (1.5mm) from both ends of the pivot bracket and the two collars, you will be left with a 0.120" gap on the whole assembly. This will cause two problems: The larger idler wheels will only be supported by a 12mm long collar rather than the required 15mm (probably will not affect anything though) AND the plastic bushings on the pivot phaft will slip out into the 0.060" gap under the idler wheel. (A BIG problem) The optimum way out of this is to fabricate new collars that have 15mm long shoulders and are 0.060" longer. That is shy the solution I proposed includes new collars. Another solution for the collar problem would be to make shims that are OD=25mm, ID=20.3mm and THK=1.5mm. Again, I do not have a lathe to make these and this custom size is not commercially available. BUT, while responding to your comments it just dawned on me that it would be cheaper to have a machine shop make up a bunch of these shims rather than the collars. I'll pursue that...

3. The last part of my solution is to include a little tool that you would clamp onto your pivot shaft ends which would space out the required 0.060" removal. With any common material removal tool (Angle grinder, bench grinder, hacksaw & file, belt sander, etc) you would then accurately and squarely grind away the ends of the pivot shaft by 0.060"

I will perform this job on my sled and post pics of the setup. I'll need a week.

Greg

 

[maddogjeff]

Thanks for the clarification, I think I understand now. The gap left from machining the mount and the pivot bracket has been a bit of a concern of mine also. I like your second solution of fabricating shims to fill the gap, I would definitely be interested in obtaining those. Keep us posted.

 

[garserio]

Thanks for the clarification, I think I understand now. The gap left from machining the mount and the pivot bracket has been a bit of a concern of mine also. I like your second solution of fabricating shims to fill the gap, I would definitely be interested in obtaining those. Keep us posted.

Maddog... I was thinking more about those shims and it ALMOST works! The machining of the stock collars still has to happen and I haven't yet figured an easy way to do that without a lathe. I guess if I got a bunch of shims made, then people could get the machining done locally like you originally suggested and then use a pair of my custom shims.

I should just buy a little lathe!

Again thanks for the feedback...