Bill, I recently bought stripped and rebuilt an 04 5 Spot. There is a small gap between the bushings and grease does get through, but it’s tight. There’s a modification here http://turnertech.fooriders.com/modifications.html, but mine have the helical groove like the bigger pivot shafts. Overall it felt stiffer than a similarly frame with pivot bearings to the hand, but when on it, it feels great.

Until late ‘O5 the Horst pivot shafts we’re grooved like the others.

I happened to ask mr Turner on mtbr why they weren’t grooved like all the others and AFAIK, since a few months after then they’ve all been grooved. DT said he didn’t really know why they weren’t, but they really kinda should be.

So, if the shafts are plan bored, they’re either original installation form the time of manufature of the bike, or an older pivot kit.

With new bushes, the rear pivots of a 5spot/flux etc are supposed to ‘hold their set’ i.e not flop under their own weight. They are supposed to freely move with some hand pressure, but hold their position when un-weighted. Apparently this is static friction, and dynamic friction of the system on the trail during actual riding is much less. I’ve never felt any stiction during the ride at least. The scale of forces once you’ve loaded up the bike with your body weight mean that what stiction there is is pretty inconsequential – so the theory goes.