The bushing you are referring to is to keep the ball joint clean and dry, or cleaner and dryer than being unprotected. They are not the easiest things to get off as the torx bolt from under the fork bridge is attached to the damper with loctite and requires some heat at the base to remove plus it moves around so difficult to get some bite and turn it. If nothing else, take a big dob of grease and cover up the ball to keep dirt out till you can replace it. That is my current state also.
That is a clever solution and I considered that last year when I rebuilt my clutch, but got lazy and just ordered from BMW since I was placing a big order anyway. The new ones are foam rubber which makes lots more sense to me than felt. This area sees lots of water when riding in the rain and felt absorbs water and dries slowly. I always thought felt was a strange choice in this application. I much prefer the rubber and just need to find a cheaper alternative than BMW. Would be great if BBY could find a source or foam rubber donuts...
I first tried drilling through the felt biscut and that didn't work well at all. Too much grab on the drill bit and too little felt biscut to hang on to. I ended up making a small square hole using a very sharp 1/4" chisel and hammer worked just fine.
I use the faucet felt washers that already have a hole in them.
Sounds like a great reason to go back to the hardware store and wander around some more.
I bought an appropriately-sized rubber stopper at the hardware store, cut it into 1/4" thick sections, and drilled a hole in it. Had to replace all three of the felt washers.
