kb0nly
05-28-2013, 03:18 PM
I was getting sick of the center portion of the rack rattling and driving me nuts so it was time to make some bushings. After looking at pictures of really mint survivors or restorations i saw there was a plastic bushing. The parts diagrams don't seem to show it and its not available anymore anyway. So i designed a quick and easy replacement that anyone can make.
Get a length of standard 1" PVC pipe, PVC conduit will work also but note they are slighting different sizes. The rack tubing is roughly 7/8" or 22mm depending on coating or paint, etc. Mine measured 22.33mm with the calipers.
Cut two lengths of the 1" pipe to 1 - 3/16" long, 1 - 3/16" is the max width that will fit inside the guide on the rear hinge point, now cut part of the side out, i removed a roughly 3/8" wide strip of the side to make a C shaped piece. I used a ratcheting tubing cutter to make quick work of this.
Now remove the screws that hold the tabs on that center rack piece, mine were rusted in, once i got them out i had pretty well destroyed the phillips head of them so i bought two new metric bolts and lockwashers and flat washers and ran a tap in the threads to clean them up for the new bolts. Snap the PVC bushings on and align so that the cut down the side of the new bushings is going to be towards the center, i just sat that piece of the rack in place so that the guide on the back arm held it upright while i turned the bushings to match then put on the tabs and bolt them back down, it will compress the PVC bushings down to the tubing size. A little dry lube on the rack can be used so the bushings move freely.
The PVC is just the right thickness so that the guide over the back keeps it from moving front to back and getting hung up, it also still has enough room to move freely. Nice and snug but not too tight, it will actually swing up and stay and when strapped down no more rattle!!
170336170337170338
Now can anyone tell me what the latch side of this center rack should have to stop it from rattling?? It has holes where they sit down on the bar of the rack so i assume it had maybe a rubber bumper of some kind? I don't see that on any of the pictures i have been going through, i found a few that had the bushings at least but it looked like they didn't have anything on the latch end.
Get a length of standard 1" PVC pipe, PVC conduit will work also but note they are slighting different sizes. The rack tubing is roughly 7/8" or 22mm depending on coating or paint, etc. Mine measured 22.33mm with the calipers.
Cut two lengths of the 1" pipe to 1 - 3/16" long, 1 - 3/16" is the max width that will fit inside the guide on the rear hinge point, now cut part of the side out, i removed a roughly 3/8" wide strip of the side to make a C shaped piece. I used a ratcheting tubing cutter to make quick work of this.
Now remove the screws that hold the tabs on that center rack piece, mine were rusted in, once i got them out i had pretty well destroyed the phillips head of them so i bought two new metric bolts and lockwashers and flat washers and ran a tap in the threads to clean them up for the new bolts. Snap the PVC bushings on and align so that the cut down the side of the new bushings is going to be towards the center, i just sat that piece of the rack in place so that the guide on the back arm held it upright while i turned the bushings to match then put on the tabs and bolt them back down, it will compress the PVC bushings down to the tubing size. A little dry lube on the rack can be used so the bushings move freely.
The PVC is just the right thickness so that the guide over the back keeps it from moving front to back and getting hung up, it also still has enough room to move freely. Nice and snug but not too tight, it will actually swing up and stay and when strapped down no more rattle!!
170336170337170338
Now can anyone tell me what the latch side of this center rack should have to stop it from rattling?? It has holes where they sit down on the bar of the rack so i assume it had maybe a rubber bumper of some kind? I don't see that on any of the pictures i have been going through, i found a few that had the bushings at least but it looked like they didn't have anything on the latch end.