Topic: Rickman CR Refresh - Collection of Kit Parts

[calj737]

I will see about getting a gallon of evaporust and a 3/8-24 grease fitting from the auto store today and give it a whirl.

Is that truly the correct pitch?

You might have success using a C-clamp to hold the opposed piston thats already loose while you grease drive the stuck unit out. Or, plug the crossover fitting and drive only the stuck side.

[slikwilli420]

Is that truly the correct pitch?

[/quote]
AP calipers are British made, so everything is UNF thread. 3/8-24 bolts hold the halves together as well as the thread for the brake line fittings.

[calj737]

I would have suspected Whitworth not UNF. Learn stuff daily on this forum-

[754]

I think they are black anodize, looks like in the pic, make sure what you soak it in wont hurt that.
If caliper is solid , drill and tap.. Then male a puller with a piece of flat bar.. A spacer from flat bar to caliper on each side... Puller bolt or shaft coming up thru middle... Then use nuts and spacers to crank on puller bolt to draw up the caliper..
Ideally the puller stud should be coarse thread into piston, and fine thread on other end for extra mechanical advantage.. Hope you can cut your own threads.
 How big is your brothers lathe.. ? Best scenario is you cut both sides of disc in one setup , but hard to do if lathe is not big enough(too much tool overhang)

[slikwilli420]

I will have to test the Evaporust on an inconspicuous area to make sure it won't hurt anodizing. It claims to be safe on plastic and rubber so I doubt hard anodizing would be affected, but worth double checking. I have been soaking in PB Blaster and heating with propane to get things expanding/contracting to break the piston loose, but no luck yet. The pistons are hollow but have a taper toward the middle of the cup of the piston. The outer are is about 0.325" so that should be enough to get a #10 bolt threaded in on two edges opposite of each other, then rig a flat bar to span both holes, and a rod attached to that to make a slide hammer. Im sure a few taps will get it moving. I hate having to do this to the original piston but it may be the only way, but I will try the grease method first. Worst case is having to replace all 4 pistons, but they are available from Andover Norton for £14 each.

I don't know the dimensions of his lathe specifically, but know its much bigger than my little 8x16. I will need to figure that out and get an adapter worked up to bolt to the back of the hub so I have the space to do both sides without taking it off the adapter ring or out of the lathe once mounted.

[calj737]

Personally, I'd rather remove it from the lathe by unbolting it from the fixture. Then turn it around, and cut the other side. At least then you can insure the sides are cut parallel to each other and you have ample tool room. If you move the part so far away from the headstock, you will get chatter in the disc while cutting. The closer the more rigid.

Just take a piece of 1/4 flat steel, drill mounting holes through it. Weld on a piece of round stock or square tubing to make a stem to fit in the jaws. Bolt the rotor to it, nutted on the backside of the flat stock. Cut 1 side. Unbolt, reverse the rotor, bolt it down. Cut the other side. 30-45' of prep. 15' of cutting per side. Done.

[754]

Can you get your three jaw chuck into the caliper recess ?. I used my Southbend 9  to grip Harley banana caliper pistons that way..being able to wiggle sideways may help a bit.
 Cal that rotor wont reverse easily and likely not machined on backside. Plus flexy setup leads to chatter easily.. On a 16 inch lathe should be able to cut both sides in one go.
 I suggested the aluminum. Collar to bold it as he has access to getting it cut by water jet and it will be rigid.

 I had a thinned stock disc with runnout.. That I bought.. Tried I think 2 times to recut it.. Got it better but not quite right. Stainless being hard to cut and anting to sing.. I had to use my jog button to turn slow enough..push button let chuck turn a couple times. Then hit button again ..repeat 100 times..   You could always feel the runout thru the brake lever and at about 7 thou, it wore the tire out prematurely.. On only one side..

[slikwilli420]

I will play with a few ideas on how to bolt this up. Cal, I like your idea of keeping the arbor/holder in the lathe. I would think that once you cut the first side you could use that to indicate of from once you flip it (if you needed to) and then you would get parallel sides. The hat/hub of the rotor is deep enough that I would likely have room to do both sides without flipping it if I started with the outside of the rotor away from the chuck. That should leave enough room on the back side to get a tool in there without disrupting the mount.

[calj737]

Cal that rotor wont reverse easily and likely not machined on backside.

Looks to me that if you mounted the flange side against the lathe first, then if you reversed the disc, the flange would be out of the way for the second cut. Maybe I'm missing something? And you're saying that both sides of those discs are machined from stock? Interesting...

[754]

If the rotor is parallel at the mount surface yes it could work,but it is harder to clean up or stone that inner surface to assure its parallel.. I suggest an OD of the holding block the diameter of the disc mounting surface, and a lip to locate the disc. Then that lump is held via outside jaws or on a bore in the centre.
 A 1/4 plate mounted to  a 2 inch pin can have flex or vibration affecting the finish.

[slikwilli420]

Hallelujah! The grease gun method worked!  I couldn't for the life of me find a 3/8-24 thread grease fitting so I had to get a bolt, cut it down and drill and tap it for a 1/4" grease fitting. Threaded that in with a copper washer to seal and they popped right out. That was a huge sticking point for me and I'm happy it worked out.

I'm still working on the sheared of bolt in one of the calipers. I welded a nut on the part sticking out but ended up shearing it off a bit shorter. I gave it a 12 hour soak in evaporust and is again soaking with some pb blaster.

A 12 hour soak for the rear rotor was promising. The vast majority of the rust is gone but some remained so back for another soak.

Turning attention to the triple trees. You can see the pic in my first post that they have some sort of damage that looks like they blistered somehow. My question is of this is fixable? I thought maybe I could cut all that cancer out and have it welded up carefully so nothing distorted. These are definitely worth saving if possible due to rarity. My dad had an idea to see if the local university would be willing to recast them as a project in their foundry. Thoughts?

[calj737]

I think I would mill new trees, then hand sculpt them to a very close resemblance of the originals. It would be a great deal of work, but I can't imagine saving those without enormous work anyway. Even re-casts would not be "original" so why not use a mill to get you close? Then shape by hand back to original profiles?

[754]

That is what i am thinking of doing to make a set of 41 mm Rickman trees, then run410mm SV forks.
 The trees should be forged, stronger than castings, I would not run a cast tree, unless it was a very select alloy. (not sure which)... Way better off with billet.

 I think your bolt might be removed chemically, or EDM will def do it..
 Did you try a spline drive extractor yet ?

[slikwilli420]

I will likely end up making new ones and try to replicate the originals as close as possible. I just would like to at least explore saving them.

For the broken bolt I will have to start moving to more extreme measures. I might see if I can mount it to my mill and drill it out.  What is a spline drive extractor Frank?

[slikwilli420]

So this is actually still alive and kicking. Jim French tried to laser weld the triple trees and it basically burned right through it, making them a total loss. I was able to source an original lower with stem in fantastic shape from Europe, but am still missing a nice top.

Since this is a restomod anyway, and given my love affair with the Borrani wheels on my racer, I will rebuild the wheels with wider rims than came stock and some SS spokes, with vapor blasted hubs. I will retain the stock rotors, which still need to be resurfaced. Since my last update I have come up with a headlight mount (Ricky_Racer) and a long tank and left/right footpegs from Hagar24. I now have all but the fairing mounts and frame/swingarm from the kit. The frame/arm are not big deals to me as originals tended to have cracking issues so I will be going a different route. I much prefer other frame designs such as Seeley or Egli anyhow and I don't think I will do disservice to these parts by going with a different frame.

The racer is priority right now and taking up all funds, but once the season gets going I will hopefully have a little more income to start thinking about this one again.

[slikwilli420]

Pulled the front apart today and nearly every spoke snapped right at the nipple. They wouldn't have been worth restoring anyway so new SS spokes and nipples will go in their place. Thinking of going wide on both ends. Stock front was 1.85" and I think a 2.15" would be nice as well as going from the stock 2.15" rear to 3.00".

I got the hub cleaned up in my parts washer and pulled the bearings. Pretty nasty barnacles in there for sure. A vapor blast job and some new bearings and it'll be better than when the brothers built these kits in the day.

The rotors still need to be skimmed by Tom at True Disk before they go back on with the hat painted black, maybe silver.

[calj737]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M3p2VUwAjzWzdkMg2

[slikwilli420]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M3p2VUwAjzWzdkMg2

Google photos won't let me embed pictures on my phone, just on my PC.

[slikwilli420]

For whatever reason it took me over 2 years to find the Rickman Facebook group, but I have joined up and there is a wealth of knowledge there a mile deep. I have tons of pictures but never really had anyone I could ask questions to and get real time responses.

It just so happens there is a chap on there that is making new CR frames/swing arms, but over in the UK. I have messaged him to get the particulars. I would imagine the lead time is long, so I will be able to do a "pay as you go" type deal hopefully. I also need to make sure I can register it in the US for street use, though it would make a killer AHRMA Formula 750 bike.

My Borrani connection is checking with the factory about drilling the rims special for my hubs as they would have done for the original kits back in the day. I still need to do some measuring to make sure the wider rims will work with everything, especially front tire clearance relative to the fender/forks, and for clearance to the sprocket out back.

I am working on sourcing all the parts to rebuild the AP Lockheed brakes, which includes two calipers and one master cylinder. Looking at $500 or so just in parts to refurb all that. Fortunately I have an AP adjustable ratio master to use up front I got for a song at a swap meet, just needs a new cap. The masters are $350 new so that lightens the blow a bit.

[Stev-o]

For whatever reason it took me over 2 years to find the Rickman Facebook group...

Link?

[slikwilli420]

For whatever reason it took me over 2 years to find the Rickman Facebook group...

Link?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/172731889411877/

[Rocketman]

If your brake rotors still need finished, here is a vendor who I have used to refinish brakes in the past and did a good job.

Tool Salvage & Motorcycle Works, 15709 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44112; 216.451.5500 or 216.851.5166.

They advertise in the AHRMA rule book and website. 

[slikwilli420]

If your brake rotors still need finished, here is a vendor who I have used to refinish brakes in the past and did a good job.

Tool Salvage & Motorcycle Works, 15709 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44112; 216.451.5500 or 216.851.5166.

They advertise in the AHRMA rule book and website.

Thanks for that Martin. Glad to see you back on this side of Earth. I just used Tom at Truedisk and it was excellent work, though a bit spendy on return shipping. Will your place do the one piece iron rotors like on my Rickman? Im always in for supporting another AHRMA company.

[Rocketman]

Not sure about one piece rotors.  Probably, but would need to check to be sure. 

Took a few days, but I'm back on Eastern Standard Time.     Good luck with the build.

[hagar24]

1975 CR 750 is what it was, was used for racing till the end of 75, sat out doors till I started the rebuild, never street driven, rain and sun and wind, salt air I can't say because I live at lease 20 miles from the ocean.