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Hi Matt,
When I was talking about the shoulders, I was meaning to reference the shape of the original bushings and their shoulders.
I wanted to do away with the whole idea of squishy rubber. The rubber bushings compensate for and can compound the misalignment of the brackets casted holes when aged.
The holes in the bracket have taper, out of roundness and axial alignments issues that are equal to that of a noodle! Rubber self aligns and conforms, sort of!
I suspect that when they machined the bolting base, they aligned or did not align, to the inside of those holes because of these variances. They could have used cones built onto a fixture that only locates the front edges. They also could have just bumped up to an outside reference someplace which ends up with the same results.
The bracket was made fast and dirty. It might be design to be a generic to fit "open sourced" alternators models as well!
Either way, it's just laziness from the get go! The whole rubber thing threw curves into manufacturing slack as in "it won't matter!" Ha!
I could have used aluminum or steel but plastic is easier to obtain, cost effective, lighter and more fun to machine.
I also made my solid bushings slightly larger after boring the bracket. A nice slip fit for my fresh smooth and straight holes in the alternator bracket.
The shoulders are needed to lock the alternator housing from moving back and forth. The bushings length fill the gap and locate the alternator pulley in line with the water pump and crankshaft.
You can make slight adjustments to get a better alignment in that direction too.
You end up with a solid mounting for the pivot point on the bolt.
Yes the PVC gets a hole in the middle for the bolt to go through.
When I said for you to use a steel bushing out of the rubber bushing I was suggesting a repair for the alternator housing only.
If you make your own plastic bushing, you could forget the repair on the alternator.
The faces of the new hard mount bushing will lock up and square up on the alternators faces.
As it works in the rubber there are no support surfaces. The steel bushings just lock up on narrow faces and pinch a little. Your hole in the alternator yelled, "I got loose, ha ha!"
I don't know how you will straighten up your bracket with out line boring it to the machined surface that bolts to the engine?
I have a milling machine and right angle plates to bolt it up to.
A milling machine is a very heavy drill press, so you know I don't have a drill press.
I'm like Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under... He said..."I said, I never cared for them (pistols) much but I didn't say, I didn't know how to use one."
If you were very creative and careful it could be done as there is not much soft aluminum metal to be removed out of the wrong places.
I hope I have not steered you to place that might lead to a waste of time for you.
I did rattle on in both these posts!
Phil
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