Whozawhat,
Thanks for the nice compliment. That's a lot of reading as this thread is getting long.
MT,
The ball and socket have to do with the means of shifting the two speed transmission built into the engine. On the engine is a ball stud and on the shift lever there is a corresponding ball stud, or at least there is supposed to be. My engine was missing a few things like cable guides and parts of the shift lever mechanism. I had the shift lever housing, but no shift lever and no connecting rod. On the bottom end of the shift lever is where the ball stud goes.
Now the lever is made, but finding a ball stud (also known as a throttle ball) was not working out. I tried NAPA and looked online without luck and figured I would need to take the socket with me to a carburetor or speed shop to search for one. Such a small and seemingly insignificant part, yet essential. I was mightily impressed with the ease Dan's freind made the needed ball socket in five minutes.
A connecting rod with sockets on each end pressed onto the ball studs permits the lever to control the transmission. The connecting rod purchased from Germany is almost twice as long as it needs to be for my build, so we made up a rod from all thread of the right length and bent it slightly to dogleg around the bottom edge of the tank. Later on we will use that as a model in shortening the chromed connecting rod from Germany... cutting it off to length, cutting new threads into the cut off end and bending it slightly. Another portion of the connecting rod hardware has a stiff spring inside to assure a positive engagement of the gears. The engine has a wet clutch and the shift lever housing is gated. The last thing I want to do is screw up this transmission, so a lot of care is going into this shifting business. In the end it will be worth it.
Unlike your situation, I don't have rummage places available to me and generally find that bike shops either don't have what I need for a motorbike or are priced pretty high for an old guy on a budget. It's always good when you can solve a problem yourself or come up with a part from your own "stuff".
SB
Thanks for the nice compliment. That's a lot of reading as this thread is getting long.
MT,
The ball and socket have to do with the means of shifting the two speed transmission built into the engine. On the engine is a ball stud and on the shift lever there is a corresponding ball stud, or at least there is supposed to be. My engine was missing a few things like cable guides and parts of the shift lever mechanism. I had the shift lever housing, but no shift lever and no connecting rod. On the bottom end of the shift lever is where the ball stud goes.
Now the lever is made, but finding a ball stud (also known as a throttle ball) was not working out. I tried NAPA and looked online without luck and figured I would need to take the socket with me to a carburetor or speed shop to search for one. Such a small and seemingly insignificant part, yet essential. I was mightily impressed with the ease Dan's freind made the needed ball socket in five minutes.
A connecting rod with sockets on each end pressed onto the ball studs permits the lever to control the transmission. The connecting rod purchased from Germany is almost twice as long as it needs to be for my build, so we made up a rod from all thread of the right length and bent it slightly to dogleg around the bottom edge of the tank. Later on we will use that as a model in shortening the chromed connecting rod from Germany... cutting it off to length, cutting new threads into the cut off end and bending it slightly. Another portion of the connecting rod hardware has a stiff spring inside to assure a positive engagement of the gears. The engine has a wet clutch and the shift lever housing is gated. The last thing I want to do is screw up this transmission, so a lot of care is going into this shifting business. In the end it will be worth it.
Unlike your situation, I don't have rummage places available to me and generally find that bike shops either don't have what I need for a motorbike or are priced pretty high for an old guy on a budget. It's always good when you can solve a problem yourself or come up with a part from your own "stuff".
SB