dissasembling and cleaning rear derailleur

4 August 2013

Bottom Bracket 
Fixed cup too tight. Cannot remove it. Lots of WD40, but it wont budge.

Derallieur

 

Removed the 2 brass bolts that fix the derailleur (hanger) to the bike frame;

And then removed the 1 brass bolt that fixes it to the bottom of the leaver (below the pivot)

Here it is, ready for cleaning. Note; all bolts face outwards. The solid bar moves the mechanism (to change gears), the spring maintains tension of the wheel.

outside of rear derailleur

inside of rear derailleur

Spring attachment to bar

removed the derailleur lever

Took apart the bottom jockey wheel. The very bottom section of the cage is on the outside of the assembly

Cleaned up jockey wheel. going to need to figure out how to lubricate the bearings in this.

Now its time to dissasemble the top section of the derailleur.

The linkage between the spring and the derallieur is a bent spoke (spoke more obvious in photo after this one). I started trying to open this, but quickly decided just to leave it attached.

It took a while to undo one of the 2 bolts holding the cage to the wheel; there is a screw slot that I needed to turn while holding the bolt, the slot was not very deep and was difficult to turn, I may have damaged the slot and should try to replace it.

Removing headset, chain, cranks, bottom bracket

25 July 2013



Stem: 
Removed headset locknut (standard size), and sprayed some WD40 down. Then gave the bolt-head a gentle/firm tap with a steel hammer… and it dropped right down, and popped out. 
 
 

Stem lifted out

The washer between lockring and top race became stuck at this position and was possibly cross threaded. I unthreaded it with large plyers, and was able to unscrew the rase below it, so the threads are probably OK.

Washer, perhaps slightly cross-threaded.

 Most but not all the bearings, top and bottom, fell on the floor. There was very little grease in there.

Headset bearings

Headset bearing size (5/32)

Headset assembly order

Pitting in top section of bottom race.

 Sheldon Brown says;
The threaded parts of a French headset are non-standard, but the press-in parts are conventional. If you have a worn-out headset, it is most likely the lower races that are damaged. If you have trouble finding a French headset, you can replace the bottom races with ones from a standard headset, and keep the old parts on top.

The section pressed into the head-tube looks like thick metal, and does not appear to be in bad condition. I don't think I would be able to replace it with anything similar. I will try to save it, and may not even remove it for fear of damaging it. I have not evaluated the bottom section on the fork.

I cleaned up the bottom race on the fork and it does have some bad pitting. The headtube is much better, but not perfect

Pedals.
My pedal wrenches would not fit, they are all too wide. Used cheap spindoctor cone wrenches, and discovered that 15mm was too small, needed 16mm. DS came off easy. NDS took a small application of WD40 and then came off with a little effort.

Chain:
found a master link and tried to compress it with my park took, wouldn't budge. Searched Barnetts manual and found this; 

From Barnetts Manual

 Sure enough, there was a plate there and I was able to remove it following these directions.

Cranks

Drive side crank

Got to use my lovely BikeSmithDesign cotter press. To remove the cotter prin, the threaded part on the tool, presses on the threaded part of t he pin, and pushes the head of the pin back out the crank-arm.  

BikeSmithDesign cotter pin press

Chain-ring crank *looks* like it is one piece

when I turn it over, there is a lock ring there which is too large for any of my tools to remove.

 

Bottom Bracket

stamped in bottom bracket
54 (size I suppose)
HG (don't know what this is)

The non drive side of the bottom bracket has a lock ring that was only "finger loose" I removed it by hand….. You can see a grease injection port on the BB. The way the spindle spun, I don't think this BB has seen grease for a very long time.

 

Non drive side lockring removed

BB NDS came off very easy with this 1 1/8 wrench.

Bottom Bracket bearings are 1/4 inch

My new french thread BB cups appear to fit. I didn't want to screw it in too far as the thread got a bit tight and I didn't want to strip anything. Need to measure.

This is the size that fits on the drive side  of the bottom bracket. For my Var bottom bracket  fixed cup tool. apparently this size is for "Maillard"

Removing wheels, fenders, brakes, bell

24 July 2013

Brake pads: 
DS (right) brake bad nut was down (cant access without removing the wheel (which turned out to be very difficult). NDS nut was up.

Rear wheel: 
I had great difficulty removing the rear wheel.

I could not get the axel to clear the DS dropout.

I couldn't remove fender or drive-side brakepad with wheel in. In the end, I pushed the fender up, and bent the drive side dropout outwards (by hand) and managed to maneuver the wheel out. I think the DS rear dropout may be bent, and was binding on the axel. I probably spent an hour on this.



Rear Fender.
 

Not attached to strut at rear

I believe the 2 studs captured on the strut are intended to mount the strut to the inside of the fender.

There was no nut attached to bolt on the brake bridge.

I had terrible difficulty removing the screw-head bolt connecting the fender near the bottom bracket. I could not figure out a way to hold the screw head stationary as there was no access for a screw-driver. I found a bent screwdriver but it was too narrow for the screw slot. In the end I used a pair of vice grips to hold the screw, but it broke (with very little force when I tried to remove it.)/ probably spent an hour and a half on this.

Using vice-grips to hold screw head while turning bolt that attaches fender.

 Rear brakes
There was no nut on the bolt holding the cable attachment point (tension from the brake mechanism held it in place, but it is a bit bent.

It sure looks like there is a nut on it in this photo, but I don't think there is (I could have forgotten removing it, but I don't think so). The spring that goes between the 2 standouts on the brakes has already been removed (before this photo; I have it)

Rear brakes; spring already removed

Front Fender bracket
This was the only part of the front fender still on the bike when I received it. The washer goes on the outside of the fork dropout. Only the nut goes on the inside. I have the rest of the fender. It was in the box, but not mounted when I received the bike.

Front Fender attachment.

Front brakes
Came off easily. DS goes to the rear. NDS to the front.

Bell Was on non-drive-side of handlebars. 

Some photos of the complete bike, and introductory information on BGA Velectrik bikes

I recently bought this bike and plan to strip, clean, and rebuild it.

The only information I could find about the brand was at these 2 sites.

• TONTON Velo (this forum is in French)
• Bicycle Specialties Blog

The bike is a BGA, which stands for Blanchard-Grange Armes. It was made in St Etienne in around 1935.
he derailleur and brakes are ”Velectrik” which seems to be the house brand of Blanchard-Grange.

The most interesting thing about the bike is the rear deralieur which is operated by a long leaver by the downtube, which in turn is linked to a rod which moves the derailleur

Here are a few photos of the bike I took before starting the work.

The bike

 

The badge is upside down!

Can see a serial number (83379) at the bottom, and BGA near the top of the dropout

One of the struts of the rack has broken off. I have the piece. Someone has done a terrible job of trying to fix it. I am trying to find a framebuilder near me who can do a much better job.

Saddle is in good condition

Nice Chainguard

Here you can see the rod that moves the rear derailleur back/froth/across a horizontal plate with a diagonal slot in it. There is a spring on the outside of the rod.

The derailleur leaver is the chrome you can see outside the downtube. It is connected via a pivot to the rod in the previous photo which moves the derailleur.

picture of the derailleur leaver from the other side.