Sloppy CB77 Shift Lever

[gbyoung2]

Friend came to me with an issue with his CB77's shift lever being really sloppy.

Other than searching out a pricey bolt and lever replacement, I turned a bronze bushing and pressed it into the lever. Original lever hole was enlarged slightly, and the bolt's diameter also reduced slightly to allow for a bushing wall thickness of about an 1/8".

So far, so good. He'll be reinstalling it later this week.

[DJM]

Good Job,

The standard gear linkage on these bike looks great but does wear very quickly resulting in a sloppy change. The pins and clevis ends also wear making maters worse.

When I restored my CB77 a few years ago I fitted a new old stock drop arm, change lever, clevis ends and pins and still had half an inch up and down play in the pedal from day one.

I suppose that I could have rebushed all the moving points or fitted oversize pins but I took the easy way out and fitted a rose joint conversion kit, one of the few departures from standard spec. on my bike. Not cheap but I'm very pleased with it, NO slop in the gear linkage at all resulting in a very positive gear change.

[gbyoung2]

Good Job,

The standard gear linkage on these bike looks great but does wear very quickly resulting in a sloppy change. The pins and clevis ends also wear making maters worse.

When I restored my CB77 a few years ago I fitted a new old stock drop arm, change lever, clevis ends and pins and still had half an inch up and down play in the pedal from day one.

I suppose that I could have rebushed all the moving points or fitted oversize pins but I took the easy way out and fitted a rose joint conversion kit, one of the few departures from standard spec. on my bike. Not cheap but I'm very pleased with it, NO slop in the gear linkage at all resulting in a very positive gear change.

Appreciate it.

After staying out of the garage for a few days due to the crazy cold wx we’ve been having, and taking care of some yard work my wife wanted done (priorities?), I finally got back out there to get to work on the lever. That can be construed as an excuse because the most un-nerving, and hardest part of this project was the first step – increasing the bore of the pivot hole using a ¾” bit. I’d been having a mental wrestling match on the best way to secure the thing to enlarge the hole to make room for a bushing, and that was a bit of a challenge. There were just too many protuberances coming off the portion of the lever that needed to secured so it could be gripped tight to be drilled as straight as possible. And what if I’d screwed the pooch? This used to be his dad’s bike, so it had a lot of sentimental value attached to it. He told me not to worry about it, but if you work on people’s stuff, there’s always a chance that things can go to hell in a hand basket pretty quickly; I’m sure some of you know the drill.

Good or bad, I finally settled on a method you see in the attached picture, and decided to just go for it; had no other choice. Think it came out “okay” and we had already figured out the rest of the plan to finish the job.

I am not a machinist, more like a machinist wannabe. The semi-clapped out condition of my ’43 era South Bend lathe, inexperience and learn-as-you-go process all seem to compliment one another. Definitely enjoyed a nice cold beer when I was done.


[/img]

[G-Man]

Great stuff. It's always nice putting some old-fashioned engineering into mass-produced machinery.

I need to do the same to the linkage on my early CB72.

G

Good Job,

The standard gear linkage on these bike looks great but does wear very quickly resulting in a sloppy change. The pins and clevis ends also wear making maters worse.

When I restored my CB77 a few years ago I fitted a new old stock drop arm, change lever, clevis ends and pins and still had half an inch up and down play in the pedal from day one.

I suppose that I could have rebushed all the moving points or fitted oversize pins but I took the easy way out and fitted a rose joint conversion kit, one of the few departures from standard spec. on my bike. Not cheap but I'm very pleased with it, NO slop in the gear linkage at all resulting in a very positive gear change.

Appreciate it.

After staying out of the garage for a few days due to the crazy cold wx we’ve been having, and taking care of some yard work my wife wanted done (priorities?), I finally got back out there to get to work on the lever. That can be construed as an excuse because the most un-nerving, and hardest part of this project was the first step – increasing the bore of the pivot hole using a ¾” bit. I’d been having a mental wrestling match on the best way to secure the thing to enlarge the hole to make room for a bushing, and that was a bit of a challenge. There were just too many protuberances coming off the portion of the lever that needed to secured so it could be gripped tight to be drilled as straight as possible. And what if I’d screwed the pooch? This used to be his dad’s bike, so it had a lot of sentimental value attached to it. He told me not to worry about it, but if you work on people’s stuff, there’s always a chance that things can go to hell in a hand basket pretty quickly; I’m sure some of you know the drill.

Good or bad, I finally settled on a method you see in the attached picture, and decided to just go for it; had no other choice. Think it came out “okay” and we had already figured out the rest of the plan to finish the job.

I am not a machinist, more like a machinist wannabe. The semi-clapped out condition of my ’43 era South Bend lathe, inexperience and learn-as-you-go process all seem to compliment one another. Definitely enjoyed a nice cold beer when I was done.


[/img]

[Robetto]

It is very good. Let's produce a lot.

[gbyoung2]

It is very good. Let's produce a lot.

It would be nice if I could, but unfortunately, this is something you need all the parts (lever and bolt) on hand to do.

The lever hole needs to be drilled out, the bronze rod turned for its OD to fit the new lever hole to start making the bushing, the bushing needs to be drilled and ID sized for an approximate 1/8" wall thickness, and finally, the bolt OD turned to fit the bushing ID.

The basic bushing could certainly be made in advance, but the "customer" would still need the means to enlarge the lever hole, and turn down the bolt to fit.

.