got 15mm knuckles & want them to be 16mm?

[ClodMaxx]

i bought a used EXT Pro suspension set, with the old 15mm openings. i then bought 8mm cvds, without doing my homework first. i did like many others and looked for the right size bearings, which are 8x15x5 (and are non-existent). i happened to call a local machine shop (they made dies) to see if they were up to the task of boring my 15mm holes to 16mm. they turned out better than i hoped!

front view (both have the new 16mm holes - one just shows an avid 8x16x5 bearing and the other shows the nicely-machined hole)



and from the inside:



he had to use a lathe and machine 2 solid metal rods: 1 was 15mm to hold one end, and the other rod was 16mm to hold the new 16mm hole side and open the remaining hole. the rods fit right were the bearings seat, and a big milling machine opened the other end. these things are machined to perfection - the bearing slides in easily with little to no play. his normal corporate rates are $80/hr, and i was in there this morning for 1.5 hours. only about 20 minutes were used to mill the holes out - it took over an hour for him to figure out how to hold the knuckles and have the holes be exact when he was finished.

i told him to keep the 2 pins and i would see if anyone else wanted this done to their 15mm knuckles. he said he could do more for $40 (about a half hours worth of work to do a full set) but that i should see how many people would be interested first. if anyone is interested, respond to this or PM me. you'd of course have to pay shipping here and back, but i wouldn't guess it would be more than $5 to ship them back to you, as long as you're in the U.S. :027: