ah crud. :( regulated.

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- DougW
  
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posted
14 years ago

Fri, Aug 21, 2009 3:03 AM

..crap..

Well, it is "close" The outer diameter is correct The width is a bit small The neck is correct

But, the center hole is too small.

So,

Using a 5/16" drill (in reverse) I melted a new hole the same size as the original. Then with a dremmel and a carving bit opened up the spot inside where the knob would eventually pop into. This of course was 100% guess work.

It fits sorta.

Didn't hollow it out enough so the wheel slides along the track. :/ but at least it stays IN the track. I can deal with that till I get a chance to look at the same item used in the Volvo. It's held on by a clip.

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- Dale Beckett
  
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posted
14 years ago

Fri, Aug 21, 2009 4:49 PM

Does this need to rotate, or would it be okay immersed in liberal amounts of grease?

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- DougW
  
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posted
14 years ago

Fri, Aug 21, 2009 11:24 PM

Rotating would be better, but I think it will slide along just fine. It's not like they take a lot of weight or stress.

At any rate I came across another option that for some reason just didn't dawn on me.

Cast another one.

From what I read it takes RTV (which I have in buckets) a good part (I have most of the bits from the old one) and some two part plastic from the hobby shop.

Soon as I clean up and rebuild the broken one I'm going to set about trying to mold my own.

Did this a long time ago with zinc and sand or plaster molds. Actually practiced first using lead while puttering about making fishing weights out of an old section of lead drain pipe. The only reason not to make rollers out of zinc is they have to press over and they could rattle quite a bit and lead would wear out way too quick.

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- Will Honea
  
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posted
14 years ago

Sat, Aug 22, 2009 7:05 AM

I managed to thoroughly tick off the wife with that approach. Since I had bits and pieces of the part I needed - like you - I decide to use plaster for the mold. Made the split mold with Saran wrap to define the break line, cleaned up the mold, shaped a good sized reservoir for the source plastic (you'd be surprises at how well polyethylene parts from molten milk jugs work ), bored vent holes for the air to escape - thought I had it all covered. Then put it in the oven to cook. Only problem was I didn't know enough to bake the moisture out of the plaster BEFORE using it. Sprayed plaster, plastic, and such all over her nice new oven. Boy, was she steamed! Just glad the oven door was closed when that plaster chunk blew!