1973 Plymouth Duster repair and rebuild
Well, in the end I did turn the shank of the bolt down. Justification was cost. I mess up a bolt, I can buy the bolt and nut at Detroit Muscle and Classic Industries for $20. I can say that I can not purchase a new push rod end for that cost. And the option of going with a heim joint was a no go.
I made a few light passes on the lathe, and its a perfect fit. No wobble at all. I did burn out the rubber seal which should indicate that the fit is even better as the seal is not taking up the slop. When installed, there is a tad bit of side to side as to be expected. But no twisting. I feel confident that I am under .005 in tolerance from the bore.
As too using the lathe, yes it can be done. And I have the 4 jaw chuck to do it, just no boring bar. All my cutting tools are for external cuts. The other thing to consider is that in order to set that up for a offset cut, you would have to ensure centric from left to right and adjust the top to bottom jaws to shift it in the direction needed. The setup needed to do that would have been far longer than the 2 min I spent putting the bolt in the chuck, centering with the dial indicator and light taps, then tightening it down for cutting.
And its done.
I may consider redoing this later when I have some extra chomoly or high strength steel. Could use this as a lesson in heat treating and hardening. For right now, its done and installed.
Well, in the end I did turn the shank of the bolt down. Justification was cost. I mess up a bolt, I can buy the bolt and nut at Detroit Muscle and Classic Industries for $20. I can say that I can not purchase a new push rod end for that cost. And the option of going with a heim joint was a no go.
I made a few light passes on the lathe, and its a perfect fit. No wobble at all. I did burn out the rubber seal which should indicate that the fit is even better as the seal is not taking up the slop. When installed, there is a tad bit of side to side as to be expected. But no twisting. I feel confident that I am under .005 in tolerance from the bore.
As too using the lathe, yes it can be done. And I have the 4 jaw chuck to do it, just no boring bar. All my cutting tools are for external cuts. The other thing to consider is that in order to set that up for a offset cut, you would have to ensure centric from left to right and adjust the top to bottom jaws to shift it in the direction needed. The setup needed to do that would have been far longer than the 2 min I spent putting the bolt in the chuck, centering with the dial indicator and light taps, then tightening it down for cutting.
And its done.
I may consider redoing this later when I have some extra chomoly or high strength steel. Could use this as a lesson in heat treating and hardening. For right now, its done and installed.