<VV> 140 linkage problem

[Larry Forman]

At 06:17 PM 8/20/2005 -0600, Geoffrey A Johnson wrote:
>Hi Mike,
>Yes the bearing blocks work wonders.  They take a little time to put in 
>place, but well worth it and pretty simple.  Also if they can be found a 
>set of heim joint style linkage arms that Dennis Pleau used to make will 
>virtually eliminate all slop in the system.  Next are the arms on the 
>secondary linkage.  These wear and flop around alot.  What I do is find a 
>drill bit that is the right size, and then weld those holes shut with a 
>mig weld.  I then regrind the part flat and redrill the hole.  This 
>eliminates the slop.  I also shim the arms with thin washers under the 
>c-clips so they can't  flop around excessively.  Finally make sure that 
>the rubber and nylon bushings at both the transmission and tunnel pan 
>bellcranks are good.  I have seen ones that appeared to be good have 
>enough slop and squish to not allow the secondaries to kick.
>Hope that helps,
>Geoff Johnson

These are all great ideas.  I have been using Lon's bearing block kit and 
liked it, except, I find the shimming part is cumbersome.  I need to take 
several tries to make it about right and often settle for looser so that it 
will not bind up.  Now I use what I think is a superior approach posted 
over on www.corvaircenter.com at their forum.  You can do a search and find 
the listing under "bearing block kit" posted by acardon on May 31, 2005.

Don's approach is pure genius!  However, his high quality approach does not 
come cheap.  It cost me nearly $2!  And it worked the first time, without 
any adjustment what so ever.  Don has found that cone shaped Delrin copper 
pipe ferrells can be slit and placed around the shaft with the tapered part 
mating nicely and making a slop eliminating joint.  At Home Depot: Watts 
A-101, Delrin Sleeves PB60-PT 3/8" in the plumbing section.  Two of these, 
slit to go over the 3/8 inch shaft work wonders.  Now to take up the slop, 
he uses inexpensive 3/8-inch O-rings and either 2 or three can be stretched 
over the linkage and then place just enough pressure to take all the slop 
out.  It took me less than 5 minutes the first time and I was done.  No 
adjusting and it just worked perfectly.  Now I have not checked how long 
this setup will last, but it sure worked SLICK!

Check it out at www.corvaircenter.com and their forum.  I think you might 
need to register to perform the search, but that search is pretty awesome 
also.  There is a lot of good tech tips over there too.

Enjoy!

Larry