Krate Springer Alignment

[Hoagie57]

OMG knowing the name of a certain part is step number one. i’m not a mind reader.😜

Nope you're not a mind reader for sure. You do seem like a know it all though.

 

[GTs58]

Nope you're not a mind reader for sure. You do seem like a know it all though. Is this lesson step # 1 teach?

Have you ever been on a facebook group where the members have no clue what is what and their posts make no sense at all? And they don't post a picture of what they are talking about? I know a member here who claims to have been building bikes since he was kid and he's at least in his late 60's now and still has no idea what the frame parts are called.

 

[WillWork4Parts]

I am working on my 68 Apple Krate and the front wheel does not look to be aligned when looking down the fork. It looks like my fork may be out of alignment either side to side or tweaked front to back. Are there adjustments that can be made on the springer fork to fine tune the alignment? Are there any Schwinn instructions that would help in adjusting or do I simply have some bent part(s) in the assembly? Thank you in advance for your advice.

As @Schwinn Sales West brought up jumping straight in with a welding torch instead of starting with the sand paper....
With every spring fork issue I have now, I start in with loosening every bolt on the springer, loosen axle nuts, and headset top nut. Then with the bike on the ground and upright, put your weight on the handlebars and to front wheel. Then re-tighten everything. All of the fork holes have a fair amount of tolerance that needs to be settled out. They are not a truly precise fit, but it doesn't take much offset to throw off your steering. A lot of times I have assembled a fork from new or reconditioned(re-chromed or repainted) parts and tightened them while the bike was on the stand and I'd end up with something off kilter, because the weight of the wheel or the fork resting against the frame set the bolts to the opposite ends of the tolerance(slop) in the fork holes.
I'd try this first, or look for kinks in the truss rods. If you have kinked or bowed truss rods, that's your first sign that the main legs are probably tweaked a little and will require some straightening.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Truss rods are easily bent and they are easy to straighten without any damage to the chrome or even any damage/denting the thin metal. In the good ole days when cars had steel wheels they had hubcaps. The auto parts stores sold hard rubber hub cap hammers. All you need is a hub cap hammer and two short pieces of 2 by 4’s. By adjusting the distance between the boards and rotating the truss rods you can remove any radius bend without any damage. John