A couple of weeks ago I did a post about making a Lowering Link for Big Honda... Here
It got cut short because I ran out of Argon. So here's the rest...
The shot above shows extended arms fabricated out of 25mm x 3mm flat bar, with the remains of the original bearing housing with the arms cut off. The holes on the left are 10mm diameter and will take a 10mm bolt to connect the linkage to the Rising-Rate Link. The holes on the right are also 10mm diameter, but their only function is to act as a jig during the welding process.
The shot above shows the whole thing assembled and tack-welded. The nuts and threaded bars are just to keep everything in alignment. It was at this point that I discovered that I'd no argon and couldn't finish the welds.
Above, the thing is welded and painted and the bearings, seals and bushes have been replaced. And this reveals a problem...
I had been wondering why the original Dog-bones were in fact dog-bone shaped? Why not just weld on the arms with big welds like I've done here?
Well, I suspect the answer is something like this. The original dog-bones would work reasonably well with no welding at all, and in fact, the welds holding them on to the bearing housing are little more than tack-welds.
My deep-penetrating welds are plenty strong and I'm not worried about them failing, but the heat from the welding process has distorted the bearing housing very slightly and the pivot is now much tighter than it should be.
It still works, but this is not the way to fabricate a lowering link. If I was doing it again (and I suspect I probably will be), I would do it differently. I'd do it the way Honda did it in the first instance.
#CBR1000F #LoweringLink #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage
It got cut short because I ran out of Argon. So here's the rest...
The shot above shows extended arms fabricated out of 25mm x 3mm flat bar, with the remains of the original bearing housing with the arms cut off. The holes on the left are 10mm diameter and will take a 10mm bolt to connect the linkage to the Rising-Rate Link. The holes on the right are also 10mm diameter, but their only function is to act as a jig during the welding process.
The shot above shows the whole thing assembled and tack-welded. The nuts and threaded bars are just to keep everything in alignment. It was at this point that I discovered that I'd no argon and couldn't finish the welds.
Above, the thing is welded and painted and the bearings, seals and bushes have been replaced. And this reveals a problem...
I had been wondering why the original Dog-bones were in fact dog-bone shaped? Why not just weld on the arms with big welds like I've done here?
Well, I suspect the answer is something like this. The original dog-bones would work reasonably well with no welding at all, and in fact, the welds holding them on to the bearing housing are little more than tack-welds.
My deep-penetrating welds are plenty strong and I'm not worried about them failing, but the heat from the welding process has distorted the bearing housing very slightly and the pivot is now much tighter than it should be.
It still works, but this is not the way to fabricate a lowering link. If I was doing it again (and I suspect I probably will be), I would do it differently. I'd do it the way Honda did it in the first instance.
#CBR1000F #LoweringLink #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage
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