Hi, I have a 749 with a bent foot peg on the gear lever. The pedal itself doesn't looked stressed - no cracks I'm proposing to bend it back by applying heat and leverage, but am worried about weakening or snapping the alloy. Anyone familiar with the stuff it's made out of and how to handle it?
Just buy one on fleebay, cheap enough. i couldnt be 100% but reheating could possibly weaken it. I wouldnt.
Cheers - can't get hold of one anywhere - only a reverse operating lever that bolts directly on to the gear shaft - anyone got a spare genuine one?
depends how bent it is. if it's bad, then heat it and bend it. if it's not bent much, just put it in a vice and squeeze it straight. if it's badly bent and you don't heat it, chances are it'll break. always hit & miss bending alloy. ian
Can't guarantee this........as bettes say, always hit & miss........but I have done about four now. Work out first how you are going hold it and what you will use to straighten it...........I used a large ring spanner on mine, so you need to make sure the spanner makes contact just before the bend (say about 20mm) and then do the same if you are using a vice say, 20mm the other side of the bend. Either get tablet of soap and rub the lever with it both sides........and if you can, a length of pine (possibly a split pencil).......heat the lever with a blowlamp and watch for the soap to turn black (it doesn't always happen) and test with the pine..........if it chars, it's readfy for pressure..... Hook the ring spanner on in the right position and use your body weight to lean on the spanner and bounce against it but not too hard, increase the bounce as necessary........It should move. If it doesn't go, heat it again, but do not let it get red hot and try again.......Mine eventually went.......in fact too far and had to pull it back again. Do not quench it......let it air cool. Good luck.
Mission accomplished! Arquebus - followed your instructions and it went quite smoothly. There is a definite point at which the alloy becomes mailable. I managed to get it moving before the pine started charring - after about ten minutes of blowtorch heating in one minute intervals - had to use 'reasonable force' with a fairly long ring spanner. I could see the metal surface deforming during the bend so wouldn't want to do this again to the same lever. Thanks for the top advice again!
Ally should get harder/stronger over several days after being heated and bent, if it was allowed to air-cool......... However, as it seems it didn't quite get to the 'proper' heat level and you could see the surface deforming (does that mean simply bending or opening up tiny little pinholes/cracks?) I would be inclined to stick it in a vice and give it a push pull just to make sure it doesn't break.
Just bending - I double checked for stress marks/ cracks and it looks OK. I think it was just the metal moving. I'll get it back the vice tonight...
