Vintage WorkshopServices for Brough Superior motorcycles and their contemporaries
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Vintage Workshop Services for Brough Superior motorcycles and their contemporaries |
Enfield 8" front hub replica page last update: 8/2006
| Now, this is not my own work, but the work of my friend Terry. Terry is living "down under", and is an engineer as keen as the best in this part of the world! Some time ago we came upon the topic of front hubs and he said he has once made a batch, would I want one? Of course I would. So Terry duly made another one, and it took a while until an affordable
form of transport was arranged: Terry's neighbour's German nephew was on a
visit to Australia, and on his way back, he took the hub with him. Now the
nephew is living a long way from me, but he went on a holiday in Croatia,
which led him over Munich, so here is the hub! |
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| This is how it looks from the rear side.
Now Terry has also promised me a brake for it. Watch this space! |
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| Now, Terry has given me a nagging, and right he is:
more than half a year ago, he has supplied me a very nice brake backing plate, and I have NOT put it onto my website! Shame on me, and my apologies, Terry! Here it is, and I am very happy with it!
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| 1/2006: Now I have at least made a nice brake lever, and I hope to finish the whole brake soon... |
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| 7/2006. Now I finally got down to it.
I made a batch of brake shoes and associated small stuff like brake cams, pivot bolts etc, which you can see here if you like. I had the shoes lined (no, I am not doing this myself!). Here I am machining the brake linings to the exact drum diameter, which I consider to be essential in building a brake that works well from the start. |
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| The Castle fork front brake is a bit of a temperamental design. Due to
the kinematics of the bottom links, the brake plate needs to be free to
revolve on the spindle, but should not have any shake on it. This is
accomplished by pressing it against the flange of a hardened "top hat" bush
with the star spring you can see a few pictures above.
Now this bearing can only be as good as the bearing surfaces. This is why I thought it might be as well to finish the bearing surface on the brake plate true and square, which is being done here. |
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| You may have wondered how I held the plate!? Here you can see it. I made an adaptor piece to go inside the bore, aligning this with the bore of the faceplate. And I made a round nut with a little lip on one end, which is used to pull down the plate, holding it by the chamfer in the bore... |
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| This is the end result. I hope it will live up to my expectations, though I have been warned: The Castle fork legs are not really up to supporting a good brake. Several friends have told me they will bend before the front wheels locks. We will see... |
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