Never Fail Bushings vs Wet Bolts?

I used a Dremel #191 cutter for the bushings. First off got a regular 9/16 bolt and cut the head off with enough of the smooth shank to serve as a guide to cut a groove around the interior diameter at the centerline of the bushing. Easier to cut the bolt a bit on the long side and adjust with washers.( Center of old DVD's is excellent for exact measure.)
After I had that done, I made a couple of freehand spiral cuts from the center groove towards each end. Stopping about 1/2" from the ends.
Finally I used a 1/16 cutting disc to make a small groove in the wet bolt across the grease hole to make sure of a free path for the grease to flow to the groove in the bushing.
This mod allowed for two things #1 Easy to grease properly no matter weight on the shackle or not. #2 Wonderful reason to get the purchase of a Dremel 4000 tool through the finance dept,AKA DW :B
Remove the zerks from the bolts and clean well when finished. Doesn't hurt to make sure the grease passage was drilled all the way through also. :M

Art.

JBarca wrote:
Don, boy that salt air from back in NY really played havoc on the Trail air unit. I can't say I'm impressed with the new Trail Air plating. My brand new one out of the box had a slight rust stain forming in a corner where the plating missed.

John

Imagine my surprise when I found it had completely seized! I was thinking I should have replaced it but it seemed to free up OK. I probably ought to jack up the trailer again in the spring and see if it still articulates properly.

smkettner wrote:

CEddy wrote:

Rvpapa wrote:
Lynnmor wrote " If I were doing mine again, I would cut a figure 8 inside the bushings to allow grease to go all the way around. "
I did this with a 1/16" HSS ball-end cutter in a Dremel. Allows for an easy and proper greasing.
Art.

Can you guys expand on this a bit? I understand the advantage to cutting passages for the grease to get all around the bushing, but how do you get any kind of cutting tool inside the ID of the bushing?

I don't know about a figure 8 but I did hand file a chamfer or relief on the bolt grease hole to allow better flow.

I like this option, too. Thanks.

fj12ryder wrote:
Just use a very small Dremel burr tool. And make sure you don't extend the cut inside to the edge of the bushing or you defeat the whole purpose.

Gotcha... I'm sure when the parts are in-hand it will become apparent which bits will work. Or it might make a good excuse to buy some more bits...

CEddy wrote:

Rvpapa wrote:
Lynnmor wrote " If I were doing mine again, I would cut a figure 8 inside the bushings to allow grease to go all the way around. "
I did this with a 1/16" HSS ball-end cutter in a Dremel. Allows for an easy and proper greasing.
Art.

Can you guys expand on this a bit? I understand the advantage to cutting passages for the grease to get all around the bushing, but how do you get any kind of cutting tool inside the ID of the bushing?

I don't know about a figure 8 but I did hand file a chamfer or relief on the bolt grease hole to allow better flow.

Don, boy that salt air from back in NY really played havoc on the Trail air unit. I can't say I'm impressed with the new Trail Air plating. My brand new one out of the box had a slight rust stain forming in a corner where the plating missed.

John

I used the never fail bushings when I re-did my suspension in the summer of 2012. They are supposed to be made of some space-age polymer that is harder then bronze and impregnated with some kind of dry lube. I also wanted the HD shackles, and they came with wet bolts, so I have both now LOL. The Never Fails are my backup for when I forget to grease the bolts.

ScottG, the bolts don't turn in the spring hangers, so the hangers don't wear out. One end of the spring bolt is fluted so when you draw the bolt in it prevents it from rotating in the spring hanger and causing wear. The spring eye rotates around the bolt, hence the need for a bushing.

Nylon bushings last long enough for the mfr to tow the TT to the dealer:



Shackle plates also take a beating, the one on the left was about to become a roadside disaster (bottom hole). Note how much thicker the HD shackle plates are vs. the OEMs, about 2x as thick.



The equalizer had bronze buchings that were frozen in place and the bolts were frozen to the bushings, forcing all the rotation to happen at the shackle plate, hence the extreme wear. athe Never Fails are already pressed in in this pic:



I modified a sawzall blade to fit inside the bronze equalizer bushing so I could cut it longways and collapse it with a chisel to remove it:

Just use a very small Dremel burr tool. And make sure you don't extend the cut inside to the edge of the bushing or you defeat the whole purpose.

Rvpapa wrote:
Lynnmor wrote " If I were doing mine again, I would cut a figure 8 inside the bushings to allow grease to go all the way around. "
I did this with a 1/16" HSS ball-end cutter in a Dremel. Allows for an easy and proper greasing.
Art.

Can you guys expand on this a bit? I understand the advantage to cutting passages for the grease to get all around the bushing, but how do you get any kind of cutting tool inside the ID of the bushing?

Lynnmor wrote " If I were doing mine again, I would cut a figure 8 inside the bushings to allow grease to go all the way around. "
I did this with a 1/16" HSS ball-end cutter in a Dremel. Allows for an easy and proper greasing.
Art.