Lever Action

 

I was out on the bicycle yesterday morning and rode through the parking lot at the middle school. I ride through there most all the time when school's not in session because I can add a couple of miles to my ride and there's no traffic and smooth pavement. I stay away when schools in session to avoid any suspicion of being a pedophile - can't be too careful these days. However, there was a football game going on and I saw this sidecar rig pull in so I followed him in. The chair was made by the California Sidecar company maybe from the seventies. The guy was happy to talk shop but his wife was pretty antsy - she's probably had more than her share of standing around while the ol' boy talks bikes. He did say he had another rig at home. Hardly ever see one around here but this guy's got two. Pretty cool.

Speaking of pretty cool - I made the shift lever yesterday. Real happy with how it came out. The stub on the shifter that the lever goes over has two shallow holes about 1/8" deep to allow a couple of setscrews in the lever to firmly secure the lever to the stub shaft. I put the lever blank on the mill so I could get the holes dead nuts on center and the proper distance apart. The threaded holes in the lever line up perfectly with the holes in the shaft. The lever is pretty shiny now but I'll probably put it on the buffer and polish it up. I like the looks of the Bakelite knob. It came from an outfit that sells parts for old tractors. Shipping was twice the cost of the knob but it looks as it should.

Here's a couple of views of the alternator bracket I described in the last post. The description probably makes more sense now with the photos for clarification. The spacer in the foreground of the lower photo is the same width as the ears of the alternator so I should be able to take the spacer out and drop the alternator in place. I'll shorten up the spacer to fit between the ears so I can tighten up the alternator without bending or breaking off the ears. 

The short spacers on the water pump will get tacked to the plate and I'm going to make something to stiffen up the plate a bit. The best solution might be to weld a couple of pieces that connect the sides. That will strengthen the part and keep the two sides in alignment. 

I'll finish that up and then make the top piece that will keep the belt tensioned - that'll be easy enough. Just a piece of flat stock with a hole in one end and a slot on the other.