Reply To: Swing arm bushes

[Bevan]

You got me thinking, as I had expected brass, or even just steel. Went and had a closer look and remembering my high school metal work classes, put it to the grinding wheel – fine short sparks that ‘exploded’ in little bursts after leaving the wheel – pretty sure that’s indicative of cast iron. Have attached photo of granular texture at fracture and grind marks. Now my B1 has a fairly early chasis number, KZ750B000648. I know with my 1973 Z1 several parts were modified or changed during the first year of production, especially in the early stages of the production run. Sometimes Kawasaki also changed the part number when this happened, sometimes not. Maybe they started using cast iron bushes (high carbon content should resist seizing but obviously didn’t) then changed to brass and possibly left the part number unchanged? I managed to get one NOS bush from my local supplier, Plenter NZ, another one from Ebay, so it will be interesting to see what turns up, iron, brass or one of each. Also found a NOS sleeve on Ebay so snapped that up as well. Cheers