So I'm over in another part of town this afternoon and i'm heading back to my van when out of the corner of my eye I see a small sign pointing down an alleyway indicating a Motorcycle Breakers. Luckily I had my worn-out final Drive Flange in the back seat so I wander down fully expecting to walk back out the alleyway 2 minutes later with nothing lost but nothing gained.
Once there I was barely acknowledged by a rather short and incredibly grumpy old man who seemed nothing short of inconvenienced by the fact I'd come down to his place of business to potentially part with some money for something he made a living from selling. Anyway, when I asked whether he had a 1970's CB500 he was breaking he surprisingly replied with "... only the back wheel".
The brief glimmer of hope that I initially had was soon quashed when he appeared from round back holding a rear wheel assembly that looked like had been outside in a puddle for the last 30 years. Undeterred I asked for some tools to start taking the hub apart to examine the condition of the drive flange....
Despite acting like I'd asked him for a go on his teenage daughter, he eventually provided the necessary equipment and watched me for 20 minutes as I disassembled the rusted up and greasy pile of crap whilst trying not to get #$%* all over my best shirt and business attire.
When I finally got the drive flange off, and managed to convince him to part with an old rag to clean the part up, I found that somebody had already had the same problem as me but resolved the issue by machining a bronze bush that sat neatly inside the flange.
Eureka..!
"ll take this please" I said
"No.. it's the whole wheel for $120 or nothing" he said
"but I only need this and the rest of the wheel is junk" I say
"fine I'll throw it in the skip" he said
"..........?" I said
"Ï told you it's $120 for the whole lot" he said
"yeh... but now I've just taken it apart for you?" I say
silence
"I'll give you $40 for the lot" says I
silence
"fine... hold onto it for another 30 years" I say
Then he starts putting the whole thing back together
....after another 10 minutes of childish exchange I start to walk away and he calls me back and we agree on $75 for the whole wheel.
I ended up with working drive flange, plus a spare hub, rim, cush rubbers and bearing retainer... all of which I don't need.... and he got lucky and made $75.
To be honest I would have spent more than that at a machine shop plus the arse of driving around town for the next couple of weeks so I'm generally happy with the outcome. I had a number of breakers contact me to say they had spare flanges but they were all worn just like mine so I was running out of options.
Anyways... pictures below... all fits perfect and no more sprocket wobble...
