Category Archives: RD project

stuck

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I took the opportunity of a beautiful day to open all the windows in the house and do a little tinkering.

Got the other pipe installed …

… with the help of the beaty stick.

Put the pistons and brake pads in the caliper and put it all together

installed it on the bike

and then got stuck.

bother.

The banjo bolt wouldn’t screw in all the way.
I remember John at Economy Cycle mentioning something about popping a piece out, but don’t remember how he suggested to do it.
You can kinda see it in there.
Looks kinda like the nipple that’s on the outside on the caliper (where you put the tube on when bleeding them).

I’m doing something wrong and now I’m frustrated.

Well, it’s Saturday on a long weekend.
Guess it’s time to start the weekend fun.
šŸ™‚

Pipes completed!

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I have never riveted (although I really like saying that word. “rivet” it’s almost as good as “yurt”) but I know its super easy.
And it’s always looked like fun!

One of these days I’m going to make body work for a bike by just riveting metal together.

I set out all my stuff I needed for today’s little project:

and got to work.

Well, first I took an odd self-portrait after a friend told me I needed a “Rosie the Riveter” picture.

Instead, I ended up with a pic that is less Rosie and more, “Help! My right arm is out of control and is attacking me with an angle grinder!”

After the photo-op, I ground off the small rectangles of surface rust and repainted the areas with some Rustoleum.

Then I got to rivet!
I didn’t realize at first that it takes a couple of ‘pumps’ of the rivet gun to make the rivets expand. Ended up with a couple of mistakes before I got the hang of it.

After a few minutes of freak-out thinking that I’d put the badges on upside-down (part of me still thinks I did. Not sure why that’s stuck in my head) I got the pipes done!

One of them needed a little touch up paint, so it’s still outside drying.
But by tomorrow they will be ready to install!
Yay!

Pipe fixin’

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After reading about my pipe with the foreign object predicament, Chris on SouthWestRides contacted me offering help!

We met up yesterday, a lovely Thursday afternoon, and got to work.

Of course, no garage is complete without a shop dog. šŸ™‚

The caps were spot welded on, so after a few minutes with a dremel, the caps came off.

It took a little muscle to pull the baffles out, and then we discovered the old, oily packing.
Good thing I decided to re-pack the things!

Mmmm, fiberglassā€¦.

The tube wouldnā€™t pull out, and we realized that the rivets from the plates were causing the hang-up.

So, time to de-rivet.

The offending object was still stuck inside the baffle, but after a little prodding, it fell out.

What the hell? It looks like a solid chunk of tar.

De-riveted badges (and now in my purse for safe keeping. Heh)

The second pipe proved to be a little difficult as well. The baffle was being stubborn and we found a dent in the side that was keeping it from pulling out.

It was time to break out the drill and welder.

Chris put a hole in the pipe, and we were able to take the second pipe apart

More dirty, dirty packing material. Eww.

then he cut a small piece of metal to weld back to cover the hole.

and welded it on. Sweet!

We repacked the tubes (yes, I took the ā€œholding tapeā€ off first. [:)] )

Chris didnā€™t have any rivets to reinstall the badges, so I borrowed his rivet gun so I can finish that this weekend.

And of course, I have no pic of the final. Suffice to say, they look pretty much like they did in the first pic. Except now with no weird blockage and with shiny new packing material.

šŸ˜€