Postwar Front hub lock nut

[J-wagon]

Interesting. These findings very educational. Out of curiosity, I flipped my front wheel to see if any offset. And there was!
First pic centered, second pic not centered around 1.5mm or so. But locknut is nondrive side when wheel is centered. So I need to put locknut on otherside.

 

[SirMike1983]

Yeah, that's the lock spacer they started using post-war on the Schwinn lightweights. I believe they started in the 1950s or early 1960s some time. My 1947 and 1950 Schwinn 3 speeds have locknuts on each side. My 1960s 3 speeds have the toothed spacer. I actually kind of prefer the spacer, but the locknuts seem to work fine. The locknuts do take a little more care in that the cones have to backed into the nuts a bit to lock. But it's not a big deal. I actually like the English solution of a shouldered axle best, but it wasn't adopted by everyone.

 

[SirMike1983]

Interesting. These findings very educational. Out of curiosity, I flipped my front wheel to see if any offset. And there was!
First pic centered, second pic not centered around 1.5mm or so. But locknut is nondrive side when wheel is centered. So I need to put locknut on otherside.

View attachment 1552666

View attachment 1552667

Is the crown race supposed to be that way on that bike? It almost looks like there's a recessed area for the crown race but the race is up above that.

 

[J-wagon]

Good eye! Turns out the race OD too big (38mm) preventing cup from making contact with bearings! I replaced with race smaller OD (36.5mm)

 

[J-wagon]

I think the fork might be from a different silver king. The cup inner diameter 37mm and race OD 38mm. I replace with 36.5mm OD race and now the fork headset spins nicely and snug down good.

The last pic is with 36.5 race spin nicely. I think normal looking now but will loop @ratrodz into this thread for any thoughts. He has more SK knowledge than me!

 

[J-wagon]

Ultimately I put the lock nut on driveside and a thin washer on nondrive. Tire is fairly centered. Once this klunker is built I'll just ride it! Thx all for knowledge and input!

 

[ratrodz]

@J-wagon I’ve seen different lower races used on a bunch of the Silverkings. Never thought much about it. Some had a shim and some didn’t, some were a little taller etc. Interesting… makes you wonder.

 

[Rivnut]

A couple of pictures from a Schwinn Service Manual


show a locknut on each end of the front axel.