We do have a lathe, but we also have a real good relationship with an independent machinist. He probably spends a day a week cutting speedometer gears for us. VDO has discontinued many of the plastic gears used in BMW and Volvo and some late MB units. We have been selling them to other speedo shops.

Not only is he a very talented machinist, most of his work is done for the U of F college of medicine, where he gets some of the neatest materials. You should see the custom rollers he made me for the ramps on my alignment machine. Its a dark grey material that can hardly be scratched with a knife.

I appriciate the offers and advise, our current concept is to partially disassemble the MB bushing (they are hydraulic) and build a plastic insert to fill the cavity built into the original bushing, similar to what BMW does on there improved strut rod bushings.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician