Re: 1962 BSA DBD34 Gold Star barn find restoration
Thanks everyone for your kind words! I have been a busy boy with my job but have eeked out a few moments to work on my Goldie. I spent Christmas Eve preparing and tweeking the CB400F I sold to a cool dad in the Minneapolis. He drove down in a snowstorm to pick up the bike for his daughter. It now has new rims, spokes tires etc but I still need to polish the tank for him.
With my bike I am still struggling with the swing arm spindle, so I walked away for a while and built the front end so I can determine the offset for the front hub. Britbike.com member Goldstarfreddie hooked me up with a nice pair of fork lowers. My original pair was seized beyond belief. Here is the carnage of my original pair I butchered in order to get the nuts and washer off the fork stanchions.
I meticulously cleaned, prepped, primed and painted the fork lowers with catalyzed single-stage gloss black paint and bought all new UK made fork tubes, bushings, seals, circlips, seal holders, springs, shrouds, headlight holders, hardware, fork seal tool etc from Leigh Classic Motorcycles and classicbikeshop.CO.UK. Both are great people to work with, good communication and fast shipment to the US.
I oiled the bushings and inserted the tubes into the fork lowers and added the circlips, no shims were needed. The first circlip went in with two screwdrivers in under a minute, but the second took me more the than ten minutes. I next lubed the inner portion of the seals and slid the down the stanchion with the SPRING SIDE DOWN. I wrapped the fork lower threads with PTFE tape (aka Teflon, thread sealant tape) and hand and tool tightened the chrome fork sealers. Originally, a wrap of twine or hemp was used to seal this connection.
Next, I sprayed my fork springs with a light coat of WD-40 for rust prevention and inserted the fork shrouds. Everything looks much better and slides freely and evenly.
New tapered bearings from Germany via Britbike.com veteran David Kath were pressed on the lower yoke and I have a new front end. I am using clip-ons and black Gold Star headlight holders as well.
Tapered Races and Bearings
Roger Race Bannon
Next will be the front hub, stay tuned…