Broken Parts...Need Some Replacements

kscheel · Oct 17, 2012

The other day I was randomly looking at my 1948 Roadmaster and I noticed that the rear tire seemed to be shifter awfully far to left. Not seeing an obvious answer I pulled the back tire off and found that one of the adjusters in the dropout had the tip broken off. Not really sure when or where the damage occured as the piece was fine when installed. I've only put a few miles on the bike and I have to guess that the part was weak from the start.

Anyone know where i can find a pair of these adjusters??

B607 · Oct 18, 2012

If it was mine I'd grab my Dremel with a couple of wide silicone carbide cutoff wheels mounted on the arbor and grind a new tip on the broken adjustor. If I had a lathe it would be really easy. Gary

ozzmonaut · Oct 18, 2012

You're lucky, those are for sale all of the time. I just had this exact problem. I noticed one side was funky, saw the broken tip, and tried to remove the adjuster. The adjuster head snapped off, then the part of the shaft I grabbed with vice grips. I attempted to drill out the piece that was in there and ended up damaging the threads in the dropout. There was no fix and mine are 1/4x24 which no hardware store sells(not even fastenal who had never heard of that pitch on that size) I tried a helicoil but they don't come in that pitch so it didn't work So I bought me a 1/4x20 bolt and square nut. The square nut sits perfect in the dropout and I ground the head of the bolt square to look more original, and ground a tip to the end of the bolt to fit against the axle, as described by B607. As long as you can grind the tip and still have enough length to push the axle back far enough you will be okay. My application was for a 26" wheel on a 28" frame so I needed the wheel to go back far enough so that it would rub the skinnier area where the 28's would normally sit.

user 135 · Oct 18, 2012

While adjusters are nice to have, they are not necessary. If the old hub doesn't have a serrated washer, add one of those on each side.

kscheel · Oct 18, 2012

Well i found out that Memory Lane sells these for $1.50 each so I plan to pick up several next week at their swap meet. Don't wanna get caught unprepared again.