Nothing to do this morning. Checked my emails, drank a couple of cups of coffee, nothing on TV so I thought what the heck. I went to my "bike garage" in the lower level of the house and took a chance. My assumption was correct.
The chrome plated caps on the end of the rod that runs through the spring are nothing more than push nuts or capped starlocks, once you get some space between them and the bracket, they pop off. The shaft is 1/2" in diameter. I found this online and they should work fine if an OA bath doesn't get rid of the rust on mine. It looks reusable, but.......
Item # 137194
Model # 880514
Hillman 1/2-in Nickel Axle Push Nut
at Lowes.
The hardest part of my journey on this bike (so far) has been the removal of the bottom race on the steer tube. Had to get that off in order to remove the chrome plated fork crown.
Short story. I thought that it was weird that all of the chrome pieces on the bike (everyone one of them) had been painted with an aluminum paint. Some orange citrus paint remover made quick work of that. I got down to my last piece, which was the rear wheel. to remove the aluminum paint from it and lo and behold, there was a painted rim under the aluminum paint. Now I know why everything else was painted aluminum; apparently it was easier to take the bike apart and paint everything rather than find a correct chrome wheel. Off to the parts bikes to see what's out there. For $10, I bought a Hiawatha "space bike" just for emergencies. Looks like it's going to pay off.
IF anyone is interested, I'll post some pictures of the individual parts that came off of the springer set up.
Ed