Replacement for carb grommets?

Hi all!
If anyone has recently looked at my build they may know that I'm refreshing my VM26's, and like I'm sure everyone else has found out, the grommets are darn near impossible to find. So I went a-searching for some typical rubber grommets to try to replace the dried out ones. Apparently a 1" od x 3/8" id grommet is not standard unless you custom order them and need 500+. I know its most likely a metric size, but the best fitting one I have tried is 1"od x 1/8" wide groove x 3/4" groove diameter, but the bore is 1/2". Those same places that mold custom grommets will also make tapered bore types like the originals, but again, you have to order a minimum. I just want to see if anyone else has found an alternative and to present my own idea:
In my searching I came across blanking grommets and thought it might be possible to punch a hole in the center just slightly under-size (about 3/8") to get the sealing effect. Because blanking grommets are relatively thin, the drag on the shaft would be minimized compared to say, a 3/8" thick grommet making full contact. Some oil to lubricate and voila... Do they make a blanking grommet the right size? I'm looking into that now as well....
Thoughts?

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThe grommets (if they are part number 92071-102) can be found on eBay, but the prices are murder. When they were available from Kawasaki they were about $5 each (bad enough). eBay seller wants $15 each (ouch!). That's a lot considering the carbs use 6 of them. Ed

I might add that MSC Direct has a grommet that has a 5/16" i.d. Since that is undersized, it might be possible to..... make that hole slightly bigger somehow :huh: Just throwing out ideas, the site search nor google has returned any topics that address this, just those that have encountered the "obsolete part" conundrum. It would be nice to help out those folks too.

650ed, that's exactly what I mean, huge prices for these suckers, and I have seen them go as high as $25 each (not including shipping)!! I think a more cost effective alternative is out there, hidden in some machine and costs $0.15 a piece, but until I find it, I'm looking at bulk supply companies.

Would McMasterCarr carry such an item?

I have not found one at Mcmaster, they pretty much have the same thing as MSC. 5/16" id is the closest thing either one has that fulfills the groove width and groove diameter parameters. I found a place in Australia that has metric sizes and think I even found one that was very close to the right size, but they only ship within Au. Back to the search bar again. I still think a blank grommet will provide the best base for these, though.

Also a place in England at grommets.co.uk makes metric grommets... but once again its a manufacturer and probably not interested in small fish like myself.

Why couldn't an oil seal be used? It would keep the dust out, have a small contact area on the throttle shaft, and be a press fit into the bore. I don't know exactly what size is needed but there are a multitude of oil seal sizes readily available.

Later, Doug

That would be an excellent idea streetfighter! I have been thinking about using a sealed bearing. It would press in and probably make the operation ultra-smooth. But I think your on to something with this the oil seal, probably easier to come by and cheaper. Plus you don't have to worry about pressing it in perfectly square and then binding issues. Throttle shaft measures apprx. 0.390" diameter and the hole in the carb is apprx. 0.775", so its approximately 10mm x 20mm

So to get a good seal, an id of 9mm (shaft is 9.906mm) and an od of 20mm (hole in carb is 19.68mm) would allow for plenty of wipe and a decent press fit. The width is about 5mm

I checked for 9x20x5 seals. Didn't see a whole lot of them BUT if the ID takes into account some squish area then there are all kinds of 10x20x5 seals available.

Later, Doug

1 mm ~= 0.04 in. Sounds close enough.