i got the spring plates bored the other day and found washers to use as shims at McGuire Bearing...they're actually part of a thrust bearing kit that they were willing to seperate. the washers at typical hardware stores were too large in OD to fit inside the bearing cone...
L to R : 0.124, 0.062, 0.031, 0.045
the one next to the Mazda bearing is a machine bushing from the hardware store; stacked up they all look like this:
inside the bearing cone:
and with the Mazda bearing, the stack (0.262") allows the top face to just barely clear the cone:
installed:
the skirt of the bearing cone also makes very light contact with the spring plate, but only enough to prevent excessive side loading. when bolted up like this, the strut mount spins freely with only a slight scraping on the plate:
here you can see another jig made from an obsolete bicycle suspension tool:
the 2-piece brass/aluminum threaded collar was used for installing either bearing races or seals in a Cannondale Headshok, i think. i saved it from the metal recycling and its been a benchtop pen holder ever since...now its taking the place of the coil, applying force to the underside of the spring plate while i'm mocking all this up.
now that the mount/upper assembly is finished i can calculate the adapter/stub dimensions...
