Expert advice needed, Schwinn '80 restoration



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Bill

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1) Where can I find a reliable parts supplier? Especially for the "narrow guage" dereiller and brake
cables, and ideally for white housing for same?

2) Dereilleur: Can the original Positron dereilleur be modded to accept a return spring, and
therefore to accept a braided dereilleur cable?

3) Hubs: When preloaded snug enough to eliminate play, my hubs grind madly. I've cleaned them out
with a degreaser and regreased/reinstalled the ball bearings. Clunk! Grind! What am I missing
here? Are the bearings shot? They _feel_ smooth rolled in my fingers, but _something's_ clunky
when the wheel rolls.

4) Does anyone make a seatpost with about an inch of lay-back?

My goal with the bike isn't a picture-perfect resto; I live on the beach and it'll get tarnished
anyway. I just want the thing to ride like glass.

Thanks, yo!
 
On 5 Jul 2003 21:01:25 -0700, [email protected] (Bill) may have said:

>3) Hubs: When preloaded snug enough to eliminate play, my hubs grind madly. I've cleaned them out
> with a degreaser and regreased/reinstalled the ball bearings. Clunk! Grind! What am I missing
> here? Are the bearings shot? They _feel_ smooth rolled in my fingers, but _something's_ clunky
> when the wheel rolls.

Get a magnifying glass and look at the bearing components. You will almost certainly find rust
pitting in the balls, cups and cones. I have a roughly '66 vintage Schwinn apart at the moment which
spent 36 years in a closet indoors, and there's not a good bearing in it anywhere. (When it's back
together, it will probably end up spending another good many years in a closet. Long story, not
worth going into.)

>4) Does anyone make a seatpost with about an inch of lay-back?

You can probably find an old-school BMX unit that will suit. They're usually relatively cheap. If it
has more bend than you want, turn the clamp in your seat around to put the bolt ahead of the shaft
to get a little more forward position out of it.

>My goal with the bike isn't a picture-perfect resto; I live on the beach and it'll get tarnished
>anyway. I just want the thing to ride like glass.

Suggestion, then; drop in at your local Goodwill stores and find a later bike with a better
derailleur and controls, and graft the bits together to make one semi-decent unit. If you're lucky,
there might even be wheels with usable bearings in the bargain.

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On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 04:48:24 GMT, Werehatrack <[email protected]> wrote:

>Suggestion, then; drop in at your local Goodwill stores and find a later bike with a better
>derailleur and controls, and graft the bits together to make one semi-decent unit. If you're lucky,
>there might even be wheels with usable bearings in the bargain.

Or most importantly, cups. Balls and cones are easily and more or less cheaply replaced.

Jasper
 
On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 21:01:25 +0000, Bill wrote:

> 1) Where can I find a reliable parts supplier? Especially for the "narrow guage" dereiller and
> brake cables, and ideally for white housing for same?

Cables and housings are easy. find a local shop, they should be reasonably priced. You want to
replace the derailleur? Why? If you want to restore the bike, you will need to find the same
derailleur, which will not be easy.

> 3) Hubs: When preloaded snug enough to eliminate play, my hubs grind madly. I've cleaned them out
> with a degreaser and regreased/reinstalled the ball bearings. Clunk! Grind! What am I missing
> here? Are the bearings shot? They _feel_ smooth rolled in my fingers, but _something's_ clunky
> when the wheel rolls.

You are never going to feel imperfections in a bearing. You might see some problems, but just
rolling them in your fingers reveals nothing. But bearings cost $.05 apiece. Replace them. Check out
the cup and cone to make sure they are not pitted.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're _`\(,_ | still a rat. --Lilly
Tomlin (_)/ (_) |
 
Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.

1) I have found an excellent source for parts and mechanical advice: Manny's Lowrider Bicycles in
Venice, CA (where I live - lots of beach cruisers around here).

2) The derailleur is a Positron, and when I posted originally I thought that finding an old
solid-core cable would be impossible (hence questions about spring-loaded derailleurs). Manny to
the rescue... though as parts go the cable was pricier than XTR...

3) Picked up new bearings but not cones or cups. I assume I'd be wasting my time installing new
bearings into old other stuff... but I'd be happy if someone could confirm that for me.... Do
"new cones" mean a new axel, too?

4) When I regreased the bearings I used Park Polylube. Is that sufficient? Is there anything
more suitable?

5) Meanwhile, the old boat is beginning to ride pretty nicely, even with its shot bearings. This
weekend I'm going to grease the headset and cranks. Anything I need to watch out for?

6) Brakes: it seems to me that fore-aft sloppiness is just something I'm going to have to live
with, due to the nature of the caliper design (i.e. when tightened to eliminate slop, the brake
spring isn't strong enough to re-open the jaws). Any setup tips?

Thanks!
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.
>
> 1) I have found an excellent source for parts and mechanical advice: Manny's Lowrider Bicycles in
> Venice, CA (where I live - lots of beach cruisers around here).
>
> 2) The derailleur is a Positron, and when I posted originally I thought that finding an old
> solid-core cable would be impossible (hence questions about spring-loaded derailleurs). Manny
> to the rescue... though as parts go the cable was pricier than XTR...

Supply and Demand marketing at it's finest

> 3) Picked up new bearings but not cones or cups. I assume I'd be wasting my time installing new
> bearings into old other stuff... but I'd be happy if someone could confirm that for me.... Do
> "new cones" mean a new axel, too?

You would have to inspect the cones to know if they are bad. The bearings may have gone bad without
damaging the cones. Replacing the axle is only necessary if it is bent or has bad threads. Remember
the only thing the axle is really doing is keeping the cones at a set distance apart and providing a
place to bolt the wheel to the frame. It never contacts the bearings (well, I hope not anyway!)

> 4) When I regreased the bearings I used Park Polylube. Is that sufficient? Is there anything more
> suitable?

Probably just fine.

> 5) Meanwhile, the old boat is beginning to ride pretty nicely, even with its shot bearings. This
> weekend I'm going to grease the headset and cranks. Anything I need to watch out for?

Same type of thing as the wheel bearings, but you might need some different tools. Headset and
crank bearings will be in cages holding them together. This should make working on them even
easier. Be sure to clean them well and get grease into the cages. A little too much grease is
better than too little!

> 6) Brakes: it seems to me that fore-aft sloppiness is just something I'm going to have to live
> with, due to the nature of the caliper design (i.e. when tightened to eliminate slop, the
> brake spring isn't strong enough to re-open the jaws). Any setup tips?

There are 2 nuts on the front side of the caliper. The inner one controls how tight the caliper arms
are to each other. You want to balance the slop to allow free movement of the arms in and out
without a lot of forward motion. Again, a smidge too loose is better than making them stick. The
outer nut is only there to "lock" the inner nut in place. You will probably need a 10mm thin wrench
to hold the inner nut while cinching the outer nut.

Centering this type of caliper is kind of a art too. Two schools of thought. A: Use two wrenches.
One on the back nut that holds the caliper to the frame and another "either" on the inner or outer
front nut. If you want to rotate the caliper clockwise, use the outer nut, if you want to rotate it
counterclockwise, use the inner nut. Then slowly turn both wrenches simultaneously. B: Use a drift
pin or even a heavy screwdriver and a light hammer. Position the drift pin over the spring just to
the side of the center bolt and ding it with the hammer till it moves. Kind of a hack, but it does
no damage to the spring and usually does the trick.

> Thanks!
>

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