Abstract <p>As the skeleton of a mechanical system, the mechanism has a significant impact on its mechanical performance. Multi-link mechanisms have been extensive used in multi-link presses because of the advantages such as high stiffness, strong stability, and sensitive dynamic response. However, due to manufacturing errors and assembly requirements, there must be lubrication clearances in the motion pairs of the mechanism, and considering deformation factors of flexible rods, dynamic characteristics of mechanism differ from the ideal situation. Therefore, studying dynamic characteristics of multi-link mechanisms considering lubrication clearances and flexible rods is of great significance. This paper takes a six-link mechanism as research object and systematically studies its lubrication clearance dynamics. Based on absolute node coordinate method, a element model is built, and the expressions of the beam element’s mass matrix, generalized force, and elastic force are derived. Based on dry friction contact clearance kinematic model, expression of lubrication film bearing capacity is derived through the Reynolds equation, and a lubrication clearance model is established. By utilizing the constraint characteristics of the motion pairs and the Lagrange multiplier method, a rigid-flexible coupling dynamic model of the six-link mechanism considering lubrication clearances is established. Dynamic equations of the mechanism are numerically solved using the ode15s function in MATLAB. Effects of lubrication/dry friction clearances on dynamic response and non-linear thermal properties of the mechanism are compared, dynamic comparative analysis of rigid mechanism with lubrication clearance and rigid-flexible coupling mechanism with lubrication clearance are studied, and influence of clearance values, dynamic viscosity and translational clearance on dynamics responses and non-linear characteristics are studied.</p>