ZB Rebuild #1055

[Mike DiAlesandro]

Eric, your ZB rebuild looks great!

[Russ Tkac]

Really nice!

[Bobby D. Jones]

Eric, That is a great looking rebuild. Looks to be a labor of love for you.

[Dennis Olearchik]

Very nice!

[Eric Dahlhoff]

More progress... finally getting to put parts back in!
I had to make a new mounting plate for the flat bars (bell-cranks) and also make a couple of the bell-cranks.
And then fitting everything all together and a few tweaks here and there, along with new springs.

Fitted All Flat Bars.jpg

Okay, everything lined up. So take it all apart and attach the new mounting plate

new mounting plate.jpg

The pivot bolt has a shoulder, so it does not pivot on the threads (which would wear).
Originally they are fitted in and then cut off flush on the backside of the mounting plate. Then swedged (is that a real word?) with a hammer and point so they can't spin.
Makes them very hard to remove! I fit them and cut 'em off, but I use blue loctite to keep them in place. That way someone can change things if they need to.
FWIW, I use Finish Line teflon grease on the pivot bolt.

grease and loctite.jpg

Okay then, the bell-cranks for pedals 1, 2 & 3 are ready to rod up!

P123 ready to rod.jpg

[Brian Lee]

Superb work Eric!
Thanks for posting details like the staking of the pivot screws, so folks like me that are newer to ZB refurbishment can benefit from your experience. Great stuff! It's really good to know that the staking is there, so that the stake point on the screw can be removed before unthreading the screw - avoiding tearing up the threads. Do you use a pointed rotary burr to grind out the stake on the screw? The loctite is a great approach rather than staking again. My early D10 has another variation - the RKR lever has a reverser with a flat bar and pivot screw like used on the pedal changes, but the pivot screw has the head drilled and is safety wired to keep it from loosening. I like the loctite idea much better!

That's going to be a great working and great looking rig when you're done!

[Eric Dahlhoff]

Brian, the mounting bar was so trashed that I didn't have to think about the pivot bolts.
I did use dremmel once to get rid of the points. But it was kind of messy...
My go-to method now is to drill into the bolt (starting small and then bigger bits) and then tap the edges of the threads inwards with a punch. Then unscrew the bolt. That leaves the threads in the mounting plate completely undamaged.

I've got all my rods and turnbuckles sitting on the bench. If I could just get some time...

[Colin Boutilier]

Such a cool project. I'd love to see one of these in person some day. I'd never considered making the linkages move by rotation in that plane.

[Brian Lee]

Hi Eric, thanks for sharing your tip on drilling out & punching in the staking to remove the old pivot bolts! That sounds like a great approach to preserving original plate threads(when the plate is worth salvaging)! Sounds much better than the dremel idea. Sure appreciate your sharing of tips you’ve developed from your ZB restoration experiences. You’re sure doing a great job bringing that rig back to good health!

[Colin Boutilier]

That ZB mechanism fascinates me.