Take the Middle Road
I was going to start to the brake system today, but for one reason or another (mainly the workshop was having a new year clean up), I decided on getting the wheel finally installed correctly instead!
Luckily there are a few engineering companies on the business park where the workshop is, and I had made contact with one particular firm and had asked if they would mind helping me center the wheel on the axle.
Thankfully they said yes.
The first thing to do was to remove the whole springer front end and transport it complete around the corner to there workshop. This is how I found out that springer front ends are flipping heavy!
The easy way to carry the front end was on my shoulders with my head between the legs and getting the balance right for minimal maneuvering of the springer whilst walking.
Once at CMS Portlands workshop they showed me in and immediately started measuring the gaps and positioning of the various parts of the wheel and axle.
Once it was determined that the side that will have the brake rotor was correctly aligned, it was found that the wheel was bang on in the middle of the axle.
The rotor side, note the bracket for mounting the caliper.
To be fitted on the other side from the rotor was several parts to do with the trike running. This included the speedo drive unit, dust cap to cover the side of the wheel, and spacers for the wheel itself.
Speedo side!
Yup that’s a mechanical speedo drive, turned by the dust cap with the cutout in the side. takes 3 and 3/4 rotations for a full turn of the wheel.
How did we get a superb job done? We applied the old adage measure twice cut once, and one I would advise anybody to live by!
This is where we had to “adjust” the spacer
As can be seen from the above picture there is a large gap of nearly 40 mm + the depth down to the bearing on the inside. This space had to fit the dust cap, Speedo drive and any slack taken up by the spacers.
This is where the advantages of being an engineering company comes into its own, as they had a Lathe on hand to turn down the spacer that I had.
Spacer in the lathe
This spacer pushed through to the inner bearing and the dust cap. Next was fitted the speedo drive then the next spacer, all fitted together in a nice neat package. all of which can be seen in the pictures.
The finished article
That is it at the moment, with the front wheel more or less sorted it just leaves me to get some rubber (Dunlop D402) for the front, and the Rotor and brake caliper to be installed and then I should have a completed front end!
This makes me very happy
Happy New Year! Stahp, What are you doing?