Rack repair needed.

I am still trying to find someone who can do a good job repairing the rear rack.

I have a private message on TonTon Forums asking for pictures of the damage, so I am posting them here.

problem with derailleur lever/rod connection

My problem is that there does not seem to be any way to secure the connection between the lever and the bolt shown in the bottom of this picture

Here is the bolt in question. I removed it from the lever via the brass nut. As I recall, it took a fair bit of force (by hand only) to twist  the bolt assembly off the rod. At the time of removal I did not think about how exactly it was attached.

Here is the cleaned up bolt assembly. It now slides up and down the rod, and I do not think the derailleur will work unless I can secure it to the rod.

I posted a request for assistance and a link to this posting on the comments section of the Bicycle Specialties blog post that mentions working on one of these bikes.

UPDATE - It turns out that this bolt is not one piece as I thought, but that it works just like any fender bolt, in that the nut pushes the washer onto the rod. Problem solved.

Reassembling the rear derailleur

To remove the rust, I left the rod and the spring assembly soaking in a solution of oxalic acid overnight. In the morning I removed them and gave the a quick flush in a swimming pool PH+. There were also some rusty bolts soaking in a jam jar of oxaic acid.

all the parts ready for reassembly

I am not sure how to lubricate these pullys. They sound dry and gritty. predictably, I was not able to get any of this grease to the bearings.

I might try the actions described in this thread to clean the pullys above (I posted a question to this thread asking if this was a good idea); 
Also this link has good information on lubricating freewheels

The spring and rod cleaned up OK. The spring still looks dirty, but I have scrubed and soaked as much as I want to.

The metal parts are stained, but they are clean now. I greased the interface between the hanger and the derailleur mount, and the diagional sliding section is now very smooth.

I had a lot of trouble removing the two bolts that go in the "eyes" of the pully wheel. The screw slot is not deep and the scrow driver slipped. Even now the bolt does not thread nicely. So I decided to replace them. After 1 trip to town where all the shops we closed for the customary french 2 hour lunch brake, I returned and picked these up.

The reassembled mechanism

The other side of the reassembled mechanism

I wish I had taken more notice of this section when dissasembling. It seems the pully cage is pulled back by the spring until it touches the rod; this acts as a stop.

Dissasembling and cleaning rear derailleur (part 2)

August 5 2013

Cleaned lots of the parts shown in these photos in white spirits.

The rod and spring are soaking in oxalic acid overnight.

Removed derailleur hanger from linkage strut

Starting to clean derailleur wheel

Cleaned

Leading edge of strut mounting bolt is at 10mm. Leading edge of spring mounting bolt is at 111mm. Mounting bolts are at 180 degrees from each other

spring mounting bolt detail. This was very hard to remove, even with lots of WD40. Was difficult to turn all the way to the end.

Lever mounting bolt detail

Lever mounting bolt removed.

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"