Handlebar Disassembly

[lrgarrett]

Anyone have any advice and/or experience disassembling the handlebars from the cast center piece? Any words of wisdom will be appreciated.

[sirhrmechanic]

Which model?

On a prewar chief... I think they're brazed in. Not sure they dismantle...

Picture? Glad to try and help, but need a bit more info.

BTW, see this is your first post. Great forum, great site. Lots of outstanding people here who will move Heaven and Earth to help you! So look forward to having you involved and thanks for trusting us with your question!

If you feel like it, please tell us more about yourself and your project. And on behalf of all of us, welcome aboard!

Cheers,

Sirhr

[exeric]

That's going to be a job. In addition to being brazed, they are also pinned. Years ago, George Yarocki wrote an article for the Antique Motorcycle about dismantling brazed frame and fork assemblies. His suggestion was to suspend the casting, and attach a weight to the tubing while you heat the joint. He made a strong warning to not get things too hot as that can cause the brass to mix with the steel, (I forget what that's called) because that will ruin the casting for any further welding, or brazing. The safest thing to do is machine the tubing out of the casting; but obviously, that is not the easiest thing to do if you don't have access to a milling machine.

[lrgarrett]

[QUOTE=sirhrmechanic;148435]Which model?

On a prewar chief... I think they're brazed in. Not sure they dismantle

Yes sir. They are on a 26 Chief. They are brazed into the center piece which is cast iron. There was a locating pin that I was able to remove easily but my attempts to heat the part to free it from the brass (I assume it's brass) have failed and I felt it best to seek some advice from someone with experience.

[lrgarrett]

I did think about just cutting off the bar and milling out the part, but my plan was to reuse the bars if possible.

[sirhrmechanic]

Getting a brazed part apart... is pretty hard. And often not recommended. How come you need to take the bars off? Are they bent beyond recognition?

And unlikely it's cast iron. That would be too brittle. Probably a steel drop forging. May have actually been forged at the Smith&Wesson plant, as they did a lot of the hammer forging for the area.

Your safest bet with braze is often to machine out... reamers work well. Or boring head on a mill. Braze is almost impossible to 'soften' to remove something.

Cheers,

Sirh

[exeric]

I had a 1924 Big Chief and I did replace the handlebar tubing. I had access to a milling machine and used a 1" endmill to bore the casting. That's about as much as I remember, and I couldn't tell you where I got the shaped tubing. I do remember that the reproduction handlebar tubing was not heat treated, or as thick as the originals so they felt a bit weak. I had planned to add a stiffening bar (like a Hollywood bar) to make them stronger. I think I have a picture of a stiffening bar from an Indian accessory catalog of that period. They were commonly used to mount spot lights, and flags. I'd love to see a picture of your bike as Big Chiefs are near the top of my list of favorite Indians.

[lrgarrett]

image.jpg
Here is my Big Chief Project (anyone out there with the front suspension parts I need?)


image.jpg
and what I believe to be the original bars.


image.jpg
These are the bars I found to use on the project. I didn't want to monkey with the originals. As you can see, I've sandblasted them.


image.jpg
Here you can see where I've applied heat in an attempt to disassemble. The retaining pin came out easily with little heat and a small drive pin and hammer.

[fillibuster]

That's going to be a job. In addition to being brazed, they are also pinned. Years ago, George Yarocki wrote an article for the Antique Motorcycle about dismantling brazed frame and fork assemblies. His suggestion was to suspend the casting, and attach a weight to the tubing while you heat the joint. He made a strong warning to not get things too hot as that can cause the brass to mix with the steel, (I forget what that's called) because that will ruin the casting for any further welding, or brazing. The safest thing to do is machine the tubing out of the casting; but obviously, that is not the easiest thing to do if you don't have access to a milling machine.

Admixture is the term Yarocki was referring to, describing the overheating of the cast parts and their absorption (?) of the brazing material, which rendered their strength unreliable.
I've brazed my share of cast materials, and done a small amount of cast iron welding with cast filler, but have never heated anything beyond red, and never heard the work "sizzle", so I'm not gonna tell you what Admixture is all about. ..... but I have to bet that somebody here has, and I'm anxious to hear from him (them).

[exeric]

Irgarret, I think I would work with what you have and not disassemble them. It looks to me that careful persuasion could bring them back to near original dimensions. It's been my experience with handlebars, that aggressive sand blasting, or shot peening can normalize the steel and make it more cooperative to bend. I think I would be conservative with using heat to bend the bars. Thanks for the pictures; I'm envious.