Originally Posted by
Len S
The above is plan 'A'. Get my bike back on the road. Now for plan 'B'. Have seen many people talk about drilling out Shimano 5mm hole pulleys but have not heard anyone say they actually did it. SO..... Amazon is having a sail on they
Shimano Upper/Lower 5-8sp 10T pulley set. They are supposedly $20 sets on sale for $3.95 a set. Shipping only increases by about 20 cents if I order two sets. So I ordered two sets for $13.09 and that gives me 4 pulleys. Will see what it takes to modify them for a 6mm hole so that they can fit on my Simplex 410SX. Stay tuned.
Len, if the bushing in this Shimano pulley had an OD roughly equal to a common drill size, then perhaps you could drill this hole size into a small block of metal, then insert the bushing and compress the block in a vise to hold the bushing stationary for drilling.
I'm assuming here that the bushing is not so terribly hardened, at least in the vicinity of the hole.
Similarly, if you have a lathe, a chuck might be able to grip the outside of the bushing, but the surface is one that you don't want to damage in the slightest or you'll have to re-finish the OD and it'll end up smaller, not good for shift quality.
A machine shop could also do a run of bushings, which should be made of rust-resistant steel imo.
I've sourced quite a few Huret ball-bearing pulleys from Schwinn-Approved/Allvit derailers for use with Simplex and Suntour derailers, but I would keep a good Allvit intact for it's increasing market value.