Anyone familiar with early 70's Schwinns and parts sourcing?
12-06-20, 06:10 AM
#1
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Anyone familiar with early 70's Schwinns and parts sourcing?
I recently bought a 1972 Schwinn (I think it's a Varsity) with a chrome frame. I knew the front axle needed to be serviced because the wheel wobbled. I disassembled it to grease the bearings and discovered the bearings and bearing cup/dust cup were missing completely and the axle was bent slightly. I went to my local bike co-op and found a really rusty wheel that I scavenged the bearings and axle from. As I was reassembling I discovered that the two sides of the hub are different. One side takes a 23mm bearing cup (which seems to be more common), and the other side takes a 26mm cup. I checked a couple other wheels and they all used the smaller cup. I could do this the easy way and just find another decent condition wheel with the same cutout pattern on the hub, or I can pull my hair out trying to find the correct size bearing cup. Any recommendations? Sources for vintage Schwinn parts? I would do it the easy way, but I'm trying to keep it as original as possible. By the way, all that's stamped on the hub is "Schwinn approved Made in France".
12-06-20, 06:55 AM
#2
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12-07-20, 08:07 AM
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12-07-20, 08:39 AM
#4
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Are you sure the cones are different? I've never seen that nor does it make any sense on what should otherwise be a simple, symmetrical front hub.
It looks like you're just missing the dust cap on one side.
It looks like you're just missing the dust cap on one side.
12-07-20, 10:20 AM
#5
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That's what I thought too. Unfortunately, I didn't disassemble this initially, and the bearings and dust cap were missing on one side. I have two additional dust caps that are the same size as the one installed, but neither of them will stay in place when I try to install them, which is why I thought the dust caps had to be different.
12-08-20, 07:28 PM
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It looks like, for lack of the correct parts, some creative machinist type bored out one side of the hub to accept and install a larger diameter pressed-in bearing cup and dust shield. Perhaps a pressed in cup and dust shield from a rear hub was used?
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Last edited by CroMo Mike; 12-08-20 at 07:33 PM.
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12-09-20, 04:24 PM
#7
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The cones that were there appeared to be the same. I agree though that the hub should be symmetrical.
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12-10-20, 12:29 AM
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As with pedals, good, working dust covers are a necessity for loose-bearing hubs. If trying to replace a lost one, you may need to do quite a bit of metal work on a donor cap to make it fit properly.
If this is a Varsity, I wouldn't spend a ton of time and effort on it, especially with limited experience. Schwinn made some great bikes, I have one, but a Varsity isn't one of them.
If this is a Varsity, I wouldn't spend a ton of time and effort on it, especially with limited experience. Schwinn made some great bikes, I have one, but a Varsity isn't one of them.
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12-10-20, 04:54 AM
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I've never seen a chrome frame Varsity.
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12-10-20, 06:30 AM
#10
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I also thought maybe a dust cup from a rear hub would work and tried to remove a couple to try it, but they started to bend when removing so I let them be instead of having another unusable hub that was difficult to obtain parts for. I've pretty much written this one off. It's really not worth the trouble trying to figure out what someone else did to it.
12-10-20, 06:38 AM
#11
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As with pedals, good, working dust covers are a necessity for loose-bearing hubs. If trying to replace a lost one, you may need to do quite a bit of metal work on a donor cap to make it fit properly.
If this is a Varsity, I wouldn't spend a ton of time and effort on it, especially with limited experience. Schwinn made some great bikes, I have one, but a Varsity isn't one of them.
If this is a Varsity, I wouldn't spend a ton of time and effort on it, especially with limited experience. Schwinn made some great bikes, I have one, but a Varsity isn't one of them.
12-10-20, 06:41 AM
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12-10-20, 06:50 AM
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Can you post some pictures of your frame?
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12-10-20, 07:27 AM
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12-10-20, 07:30 AM
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If it was mine, I’d take the easy way out and send a picture and email to yellow Jersey. They can probably ID the wheel, maybe even the frame, and get the parts in the mail to you within a couple of days.
12-10-20, 07:44 AM
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Is the fork solid steel or is it tubular steel?
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12-10-20, 08:24 AM
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12-10-20, 08:24 AM
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12-10-20, 10:42 AM
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