H: Hubs, Wheels and Tyres Alloy brake plate dimensions Help….
- Thread starter Cyborg
- Start date
Yep, 3/8" diameter on mine, but they are threaded B.S.F. with thin Simmonds nuts. Originals were thin plain 3/8" C.E.I. nuts, part no. 16, with plain washers under them.
Thank you for that. Now I can bore a few more holes while I’m waiting.
I’m using NOS pivots for the front and ordered new ones for the rear. I got the NOS ones about 6 years ago in a bin with some other stuff and it was only relatively recently that curiosity finally got the best of me and I figured out what they were for.
I checked and the nuts that are coming are a SS 3/8 CEI plain nut. If they are not the thin ones, I’ll just turn them if necessary. I would have just made them, but my CEI tap drawer is missing 3/8 and a pain to get one over here.
Thanks Bill… that’s good to know. It would probably bring tears if I spent a bunch of time cleaning them up and painting them only to find that out. Time to assemble the girdraulics anyway.
The same nuts are used at the front of the rear brake torque arms although the Parts List shows part no. 500, which is a full nut. Just in case you want an accurate sample.
The diagram on the new VOC Spares site lists them as 500 for the pivots etc, so will need to cut them down? It was SS500 that I ordered.
Edit… I looked at a few photos of Lightnings and they had thin nuts.
Then I looked at a few photos of Len Hardy’s bike (which had <200 miles on it at the time. Thick nuts… so whatever they had at the time?
Edit… I looked at a few photos of Lightnings and they had thin nuts.
Then I looked at a few photos of Len Hardy’s bike (which had <200 miles on it at the time. Thick nuts… so whatever they had at the time?
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I see in this photo above,
He has used spacers for the mudguard stays,
Same as I had to,
Always thought it was wrong , But needed ?.
He has used spacers for the mudguard stays,
Same as I had to,
Always thought it was wrong , But needed ?.
It's funny sitting here thinking about something simple like a brake plate,
Going back to 1979 ish, For my New L/ning rep',
I fitted the better plates that were being sold at that time,
On doing up the fork spindle , The plate was tipped !!, Where it touches the lower spring box,
A LOT !!!!, I am sure other people had the same fault ?,
Making things fit is what I have done a lot !,
So I ground a bit out,
But now, It seems the boss in the middle should be thicker ?,
BUT to me the distance between the fork blades is set by other things ,
And should not be altered ?, If you strained the blades a bit , It might upset the pivots ?,
Where the plates fit , They should be a nats wider than the hollow axle,
So the forks nip up on plates not the hollow axle,
Or in the case of standard steel plates, The nuts,
There has been talk of thinner bearings , But I don't know of such,
What I am trying to say is washers between the blade and plate , Could sort it better ,
But to me is wrong,
So now to test, I would bolt an alloy plate to the leg, Which to me would be how it is in normal use ?.
Going back to 1979 ish, For my New L/ning rep',
I fitted the better plates that were being sold at that time,
On doing up the fork spindle , The plate was tipped !!, Where it touches the lower spring box,
A LOT !!!!, I am sure other people had the same fault ?,
Making things fit is what I have done a lot !,
So I ground a bit out,
But now, It seems the boss in the middle should be thicker ?,
BUT to me the distance between the fork blades is set by other things ,
And should not be altered ?, If you strained the blades a bit , It might upset the pivots ?,
Where the plates fit , They should be a nats wider than the hollow axle,
So the forks nip up on plates not the hollow axle,
Or in the case of standard steel plates, The nuts,
There has been talk of thinner bearings , But I don't know of such,
What I am trying to say is washers between the blade and plate , Could sort it better ,
But to me is wrong,
So now to test, I would bolt an alloy plate to the leg, Which to me would be how it is in normal use ?.
I don’t know if it was the owner that added the spacers. As far as I do know, Len only rode it once. When I saw the bike I think it still had air molecules from Stevenage in the tubes. It is pretty much as it came from the factory. I thought it was a D or at least D engine with C UFM etc. It came out of the factory late and is the last one from Stevenage I think…. but stand to be corrected. Anyway… it doesn’t appear to have the D breather. Built from whatever they had left sitting around. That bike in the Lightning parts wanted ad looks like it has those dreaded Slater plates you mentioned.