Front wheel and bearings, forks and bushes, case covers

If you've been reading this blog then you'll recall that I acquired this bike as  "loosely-assembled", the saddle and fuel tank being entirely separate and the front wheel being fitted backwards. Having worked my way around to this project its time to start securing all this more firmly and of course to sort out the front wheel.

The tank is held by 2 through bolts- 1 at the front and one at the rear. Both were missing and so were replaced with M8 bolts. The tank is an awkward fit but with a little persuasion (and checking no cables or wires were caught) it did go on eventually.

Tank front mounting- fin on tank lines up with socket on frame (lower bolt in pic)

Tank rear mount

The saddle was a little puzzling- the frame box section has 2 pairs of holes for bolts although only the forward pair align with a bracket on the seat underside. Access to these holes is blocked by the seat itself when its in position, and these fittings really should have been designed with weld nuts. Without these securing the saddle is a very fiddly job.

The rear mudguard also has a hole for mounting the seat- in my case this was to be shared with the pannier mounting frames. My oseat had been "professionally" recovered... well standards of professionalism do vary. I hate its horrible green fabric and formless squidgy myshroom feel. But worst of all it hadnt been pierced for the rear mounts and the cover not reinforced around the holes. I punched through with a hole punch and then smeared extra fabric glue inside the fabric. It can finsh curing once the seat is fixed and everything is held firmly in place. However it was a struggle to line everything up for the bolts and again, access to the inside of this bolt is blocked when the wheel is in position. Weld nuts are greatly missed!

Rear Mudguard saddle mounting holes- also visible is the top of the pannier frame which has to locate here as well.

Looking inside the frame itself, its apparent that the frame box-section bulkhead also has two holes that look designed for studs or bolts. However access to these would be totally blocked once the saddle is in position.

However, these do align with two holes on the base of the seat, positioned on an angled flange that matches the cross bulkhead on the frame. These holes are keyhole shaped - suggesting that there should be some type of mushroom-headed stud that could slot in and would provide a quick mount/detach system. This would clearly be a vast improvement on the awkward access this bike currently has to offer, however I can find no mention of this in the manual or parts diagram - so perhaps its for a more refined model?

Saddle inverted shows keyhole-shaped holes on the cross flange that look as if designed for a quick remove stud.

However I was able to mount the saddle using a total of 4 bolts.

The front wheel

The front wheel on this bike has clearly suffered. Its been detached by morons at some stage and refitted backwards by apes. To some extent this is understandable as on this bike, the brake blate is positioned to the left- far away from the brake lever which is in the conventional position on the right. The wheel seems to have been hurriedly reassembled and the nuts and washers have swapped sides as well. In this position it fouled the frame and could not rotate. In particular the hollow and solid nuts are fitted on the wrong sides. The wheel clearly has to come off and be refitted. An obvious indication is that the torque peg on the LHS fork leg is left exposed whereas it should engage with the grove on the brake plate.

lhs fork leg- note torque peg unused.

To remove the wheel I first unscrewed to clamping bolts at the base of each leg and then tap these back to release the cotter clamping the wheel spindle.

I could then loosen the wheel spindle nuts themselves. The spindle nuts are sleeved and each has a wide washer beneath the head- they are shown below with their washers in position.

On my bike two identical sleeve nuts were fitted- one each side and this wheel has the earlier style of wheel bearing - cup and cone with 10 loose ball bearings each side. I hate this style as its fiddly - easy to drop the balls and awkward to adjust but hey- that's the hand I've been dealt. Having removed the spindle nut it would usually be a simple matter to tap the spindle out towards one side or the other and drop out the wheel. However, this spindle cannot be tapped through the wheel because it carries a fixed bearing cone internally. Instead the designers have included a drop-out slot in the fork base- just visible in the pic below but its clearer when  photographed  from underneath.

Sleeved nut removed- spindle cannot be tapped out and must be dropped.

Drop out slot in base of fork leg.

This design owes a little too much to push bikes if you ask me. Its necessary to raise the bike (block under the motor or off the edge of a ramp) to provide enough space for the wheel to drop out downwards. 

I'll have to check the fork legs for play in the bushes whilst the wheel is out, although these forks are designed to be replaced rather than user re-furbished. It can be done as I found out in my blog on the Norton Jubilee- but its not simple.

Rebuilding the wheel.

Turning my attention to the wheel itself the brake plate is secured by a large nut. This should be the hollow nut but in this case the solid nut has been fitted here. 

There is also a washer beneath the nut- this seems sensible to me but its not in the parts diagram and could therefore upset wheel alignment- I'll have to check that carefully. Note the torque bracket on the brake plate with its prominent "U" shaped recess into which the fork leg torque peg should engage.

Removing the retaining nut allows the brake plate to be lifted off. I was  pleased with the general state of the shoes and the drum - it needed a clean but really that was all. I refitted the shoes applying a little hmp grease to the shoe pivots.

Shoes refitted

Drum cleaned well.

Drum cleaned

However, the spindle simply didn't turn easily by hand in the hub so I assumed that the bearings were corroded and the hub would need to be stripped further to investigate. Although jammed, the spindle was not sufficiently jammed to allow me undo the hub nut which simply rotated the spindle. I needed to hold the spindle somehow but the hub nut was closely screwed against the adjustable cone. I had to grind a spanner to fit between the two so I could hold the cone whilst unscrewing the nut.

The nut and washer could then be removed. This turned out to be the hollow nut that should be fitted to the brake plate side of the wheel. Again there was a washer beneath. The bearing grease did look to be in poor condition.

This exposed the adjustable cone but once more this couldn't be unscrewed with a spanner since the spindle simply rotated as well.

To lock the spindle I fitted both hub nuts back onto the shaft and screwed them against each other. By fitting one spanner to the outer of the two nuts and another to the adjustable cone I was able to unscrew the cone and withdraw the spindle.

Checking the cones on the spindle (1 fixed, one moveable on this bike) the shaped surfaces were clearly worn. Its likely the cups will be too. I removed the cups togethercwith the "dust cap" by tapping the cone out from the opposite side and allowing it to drift out the dust seal at the same time. I measured the cone and checked for wear. This fits the spindle 7/16 and 26 tpi.

Cup and dust covr removed... the dustvover was a luttle bent so I tapped it back into ahape ysing a closely fitting so ket.

The spundle does slip reasonably closely through the dust cover, but not in a grease-tight manner.

Felt rings tapped out 1⅛od and ¾ id.

This produced a much better fit against the cone.

The ball bearings weren't in bad condition although the grease was somewhat dry. I obtained new bearings (20x 1/4") and refitted everything using new LM grease. I would like to change the two metal dustcovers, but I couldn't find these listed anywhere. Although not shown in the parts diagram, this type of seal would usually have a felt washer to seal the grease inside the bearing. I will cut one to fit when I reassemble.

In the meantime I refitted the wheel the correct way around  engaging the brake plate with the lhs leg. torque peg. 

Once fitted the wheel was clearly not central and rubbed on both fork leg and mudguard on the lhs.

This left no alternative but to re-strip it although I couldn't find anything wrong. I did take advantage of the process to remove and clean/grease/refit the front brake lever. Before removing a brake arm its a good idea to mark it so it can be refitted correctly- I did this with a marker pen

But on removing the arm I found it was a simple square profile rather than a spline so its almost impossible to refit it incorrectly.

I removed the peg, cleaned and de-rusted the pin before greasing it and refitting.

I reassembled the wheel but although the wheel was now centralised and its run was  improved, the tyre still rubbed. This was due to a bulge in the tyre so I fitted a new one and that finally did the trick.

Brake adjuster close up- the retaining grub screw is partially visible.

In order to check the cause of the wheel alignment problems I removed the mudguard. This is held on by a bracket on each fork leg- one of which also holds the brake lever adjuster, and by a lower U bracket attached to the forks and acting also as pinch cotter bolts to retain the wheel spindle. This is quite a nice multi-use of the fittings and is something that recurs throughout the fork strip.

Mudguard fittings -shown on the rhs fork leg. Note the bracket which also holds the brake adjuster (wrong side in this bike as the wheel was fitted incorrectly) and the lower U hoop which penetrates the fork legs and terminates in a dome nut that acts as the clamping bolt for the wheel spindle. These brackets also house a grub screw that locates the bracket vertically on the fork leg and also acts as an oil level check screw.

The mudguard brackets are vertically located on the fork leg by a grub screw which also acts as an oil level check plug. In my forks one grub screw was missing  and the other was clearly an ill-fitting later replacement, in fact it was simply a small stump of studding. 

Poorly fitted replacement grub screw

Grub screw removed.

On the other leg the grub screw was missing and the hole had been greatly enlarged. There was no sign of oil inside and the leg looked to have some corrosion. It was clear that I will need to strip down the forks to address this as well.

lhs fork leg- missing grub screw

Once the grub screws were removed the brackets could be tapped down the the fork legs clear of the level hole. Sliding the mudguard bracket down the leg- note that once the mudguard bracket was removed the slider is also free to move down... although it shoukdnt come right off. This showed the first hints that the internals were not fitted correctly.

I removed the bolt and adjuster that hold the mudguard to the brackets and removed the two screws/nuts that hold the U bracket to the mudguard. The mudguard then can be fineagled out leaving the U bracket attached to the fork legs.

I had hoped to remove the mudguard brackets from the bottom of the sliders but in fact this can't be done. You have to slide the slider fully out downwards and then slip the brackets off at the top. This allowed me to check the oil level holes... the fork clearly needs some attention here with corrosion around the hole and the hole itself has been enlarged. This will need a larger screw level-check screw to block it off.

The torque pegs unscrew and also act as oil drain plugs. 

Leg torque pegs- also act as drain plugs and have a stump section formed at their base which will engage with the cut-outs on the bottom of the suspension fork-leg rods.

I also removed the U bracket from the fork legs. This turned out to be a tight fit as the bracket ends are shaped to allow them to grip the fork leg when they're used to clamp the wheel spindle. This arrNgement weans that the bracket MUST be tapoed back begore attempting to unscrew thexwheel dleeve nouts. Clearly this had not been done in the past and the shaped section was burred and distorted.

I filed both to remove the burring and cleaned the shafts with Emery cloth until the bracket slipped smoothly into the fork leg.

The threaded section had also clearly suffered when the bracket was removed wrongly in the past and  damaged. This needed to be retapped BSC 26tpi But to my surprise the threads were rescued successfully.

To remove the mudguard brackets I pulled the slider fully down and slipped the bracket off the top. This exposed the spring unit- which to my surprise just slipped right out of the stanchion. This is not correct as it should be retained in the stanchion by a circlip and washer- both of which seem to be missing from both sides of my forks. I ordered24mm internal circlip and 24mm repair penny washer to replace them.

Removing the slider- the spring unit came with it!

I could then check the oil level holes in the fork slider- in this case the hole was clearly enlarged and a little corroded.

I then turned attention to the mudguard mounting brackets and the worn out level check screw fixings. I couldn't fix the broken mountings as there was too little metal left to drill or tap, but I wanted them to match each other anyway, so I ground the original mounts flat and then welded some M8 nuts over the holes. Grinding the welds down produced a matching pair of brackets which will accept an M8 grub screw as level checker. I cleaned these up for repainting.

Changing the fork Bushes

The bushes remain attached to the bottom of the stanchion and are quite badly scored. I was surprised that there had been no play detectable in these legs! I can turn some new bushes- but that's a big job and I may not need to.

You can remove the old bushes by heating them until the solder runs and then tapping them down.

Heating the bushes and tapping them down to remove.

This left a ring of solder which had to be removed by gentle filing.

Finally I cleaned up the stanchion with emery paper

Well- there was no alternative but to make some new bushes so I ordered a pair of  11/8 id and 1 3/8 OD bushes and turned a mandril to hold the ID. I could then turn the OD down to a smooth sliding fit in the fork tubes. Once this was achieved I used a large adjustable reamer to enlarge to OD to a close sliding fit over the stanchions. 

Finally I fitted both bushes using Loctite 603 and allowed it to set for 24hr.

I will need to address the internal springs so examined what had been removed. The spring unit has a nut at the top...

...and a split ring washer engaged with the spring at the base. There was no sign of circlip or washer although these may be inside the base of the stanchion. The central rod had a flat cut-out section at the bottom that engages with the torque peg bolts which thus also act to retain the bottom of the fork leg. I will need to investigate the attachments of the spring to stanchion, but this seems to require a washer to act as a base for the spring and an internal circlip that it can push against. I ordered both at 24mm size.

The penny washers arrived at 25 mm OD and needed to be ground down, whereas the id was 8mm and needed to be bored out! Eventually I got the size I needed.

Insert the spring and rotate to seat- ensuring the cut-out on the end of the rod faces inwards. Then fit the washer followed by the circlip and tap home with a socket to make sure that the circlip is nicely seated.

Out of focus but seated and secure.

Both springs installed.

In the meantime I rubbed down the sliders externally and brushed them out internally. Note that there will be a lot of compressed bronze bush debris stuck at the bottom of the slider that will need scraping out with a rod. I also brushed the sliders out with a decent bottle brush to make sure I'd shifted all this debris as otherwise it would cause rapid wear on the new bushes. Finally I resprayed the sliders and mudguard brackets to help tackle the rust.

Refitting

Its probably obvious to most, alhough not to me that when the bushes wear they do so against the slider tube... which therefore also becomes worn. Since the forks will spend most of their riding life pretty  much in a restricted range of compression- venturing to full compession or extension only infrequently, this wear will be concentrated pretty closely around the position of the bushes in a "level bike". The slider will therefore take on a sort of dumbell shaped internal profile slightly dilated around top and bottom bushes. This is why you might detect fork play even if the bushes look visually undamaged.  When I turn new bushes I do so until they are a smooth sliding fit in the top of the sliders and not to a manufacturers standard size. This compensates for the ballooning internal profile of the slider. It will give good performance over the usual range of fork movement but they will be tight in the centre of the slider. This means you need the courage of your convictions in refitting the sliders. They slip over the top bush and then lock up as the bushes traverse the unworn part of the slider. Its necessary to push firmly so they locate correctly restoring normal movement.

The motor covers

I know that the motor runs as I'd checked both carburettor and electrics, and started the bike before the project stalled. I do however want to tidy up its appearance and both case covers were rusty. The clutch cover (LHS) was probably the worst with degraded rubber literally streaming out of the sealing plug- clearly I will need new rubber seals here. 

The case itself is fixed by a single bolt which seems frankly inadequate and doesn't look original- I'll probably replace it with a flanged bolt of some description.  Once I'd removed the cover it was clear that this mounting has also been repaired at some point in the past. 

Clutch cover- sealing plate rubber is badly degraded

Removed sealing plate- rubber needed to be peeled away and removed.

Removed the case cover showing a rubber U seal around the case and revealing the case mounting bolt attachment. This should fix via a captive nut and in this case the mounting has been repaired or modified. Here the FB support literature let me down again as this side of the crankcase is poorly illustrated and I didn't know what it should look like. I acquired another motor crank assembly (dont ask the need for this will become clear later) and this showed that in some cases the mounting was actually a simple post bearing a captive nut. I found another advertised (stated from FB Plover) which showed a simpler bracket. In either case mine has apparently been heavily modified. One suggestion has been that this modification was to insert a home-made chain tensioner. Thats an improvement in my book (despite the shoddy appearance) so I wont rush to remove it all. However, even so both types of  the original case, and my modified version do mount the cover via a single screw. This does seem to be a puny and inadequate way to seal the case though.... and although there was oil in there - I suspect far less than is needed and most had leaked out already!

Welded case mounting nut.

Case from a plover as advertised (not my pic).

Turning attention to the opposite side the magneto cover (RHS) has a single large rubber inspection plug which surprisingly looks to be in good condition. There are also 2 other openings in this cover which appear not to have (or require) blanking plugs. This seems a little rash as they will be exposed to road spray. I think the upper opening visible here provides access to the clutch adjuster whilst that at the rear of the case allows access to the oil filler plug. I also noticed that the gear indicator seems to lack any scale to show which gear its actually indicating!

In order to remove this case you have to remove both kickstart and gear shift levers. In my case both seemed to be held on by later replacement bolts... that on the kickstart failed to fit any spanner I own, and I was forced to resort to an adjustable. The gear indicators I have removed on other bikes were splined to a secondary shaft inside the gear change shaft. This one looks similar, but surprisingly no splines are involved. The indicator could therefore slip and this doesn't seem to be a good design. Perhaps the splines have worn off? However, I doubt this will be a problem since there are no gear indicator marks on the case anyway!

Gearchange indicator

Gearchange indicator removed

Levers removed

I also removed the footrest rubber as it was split and then removed the peg as well since it was bent and will need straightening. The nut is a conventional thread (righty-tighty!). The lever was very tight and fits onto a hex shaft rather than the more usual splines. It was slightly bent and rubbed against the case cover. I straightened it in the vice , heating the bent region with a MAP gas torch. I also installed a washer behind the spacer sleeve on the mounting and these two steps effectively prevented the footrest from fouling on the side case.

However eventually both levers and footrest were removed. The cover was held by the single nut on the frame stud at app 10 O'clock in the picture below. However I have since discovered that it should also have a bolt behind the case at the front, locating into a captive nut in the cover itself- I replaced this for reassembly.

Levers removed case ready for removal.

This revealed the magneto beneath- I'm hoping that this will need no attention since the ignition was (I was assured) overhauled by the PO and did work when tested. This also improves access to the clutch cable and its lever - which I will need to change next.

The covers were soaked in citric acid which removed the rust. Sadly it didn't do much for the pitted and flaking chrome which was still present. I rubbed the worst of this off with wet-and-dry paper. The covers would re-chrome nicely but that will be a choice for the new owner. For the time being I simply masked and sprayed the rusty areas with a soft edge against the good chrome sections.

I removed and treated the clutch cover similarly- replacing the grommet seal under the access plug.