Indian Seat Mount Play

[rms337]

I was wondering if anyone has considered or has seen the use of a bushing within the seat tee attachment? It is just a slightly enlarged 3/8" hole, 2 inches long, through the casting, but enlarged enough where it has some play in it. It has enough play as well to allow the tee to just barely scrape the top of the tank, which I am trying to eliminate by mounting the tank just a tad bit lower. I was thinking about (just thinking, not committed!) expanding the hole and using a 1/2" long bronze bushing on each side to help firm it up. I would also be worried about weakening the mount as well. Then there is the sensible side that says to leave it alone.

I also thought about using shims to fill the gap between the ends of the mount and the seat tee which would help eliminate some play. I ordered these peel away shims last night to test out. These look pretty cool and I had not seen them before until I found them on McMaster yesterday.

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/128/3574

Any other ideas to consider to help with eliminating the play?

IMG_2201.JPEG

[HDSmitty]

There was an excellent write up story in the maintenance section of the club magazine some time ago on exactly this repair. A search along those lines should provide some results. I believe it was written by Dan Margolien (R.I.P.) from the Yankee chapter. Hope this helps.....Smitty

[rms337]

Thanks for the info, Smitty. I have tried to get the search function to work on the AMCA Features Document Search, but I cannot get a hit on anything I search for. I even opened a recent article and then went back and searched on that article and got zero hits. I'll try again tomorrow or call for support.

[Skirted]

Expanding the hole and inserting a bushing would be a good fix but the difficulty in doing that is when drilling the oversize hole for bushing, you have to maintain the correct centerline or you end up with same problem of T being too low. Looks like the worn side of hole is on bottom and a bit in a hand drill will follow the opening throwing the centerline off to the low side. I'd probably look at other options to gain the needed clearance.

[PaulCDF]

"AMCA Features Document Search"

I believe the magazine you may be looking for is: 2017 July/Aug Vol 56 #4.
Mr. Margolien details fixing oversized holes. Good Luck.

[Jim Grove]

I have repaired a number of these seat tees. I do not like the wobble when they get worn. I have been reaming the frame oversize as needed to clean up the hole and machining an oversize bolt steeped down to 3/8 and threaded 3/8-24. The unthreaded side of the tee needs reamed but careful not to disturb the 3/8-24 thread.
I've done this on painted, assembled bikes, you just have to exercise care.
Good Luck.