Triple shifter spline size

mcnicol

mcnicol

Hero member
Location
Safety Harbor, Florida, USA
Does anybody know the engineering spec for the spline on the triple gear shifter shaft? Seems to be one of these mysteries known only to a privileged few.

Failing that, does anybody know if the Breganze bikes and the Zane bikes used the same spline? Motobits makes a pretty nice rearset that I'm looking at, but no bit to attach the rod to the shifter shaft (whatever it's called). BUT they have done rearsets for Zane bikes, so if I'm lucky they're already set up.

Ken
 
mcnicol said:
Does anybody know the engineering spec for the spline on the triple gear shifter shaft? Seems to be one of these mysteries known only to be a privileged few.

Failing that, does anybody know if the Breganze bikes and the Zane bikes used the same spline? Motobits makes a pretty nice rearset that I'm looking at, but no bit to attach the rod to the shifter shaft (whatevere it's called). BUT they have done rearsets for Zane bikes, so if I'm lucky they're already set up.

Ken
Click to expand...

Different size, Ken.

Zane is the same size as the 500, though.  Not much help, hey?? :D

piet
 
Ken, It's quite easy to fabricate a shortened gear lever from a standard alloy lever off a triple. Cut the end off one , file a couple of flats on the end , crossdrill it 6mm for the spherical rod end and connect it to your Motobits rearsets.
 
Thanks Piet and Bob. I actually have a spare shifter, but I'm reluctant to wilfully destroy an irreplaceable piece of history if I have an option. I know Wolfgang and Andy Wagner have the dinki-di article already so I may go that way and avoid shifter desecration. I need to ask my machinist mate if he knows anything about broaching splines, but everything I've seen on the internet indicates that it's a black art known only to a handful of initiates. I'm just incredulous about this, we all have cars and motorbikes with dozens of splined ends but nobody knows anything about making their own.

Ken
 
mcnicol said:
Thanks Piet and Bob. I actually have a spare shifter, but I'm reluctant to wilfully destroy an irreplaceable piece of history if I have an option. I know Wolfgang and Andy Wagner have the dinki-di article already so I may go that way and avoid shifter desecration. I need to ask my machinist mate if he knows anything about broaching splines, but everything I've seen on the internet indicates that it's a black art known only to a handful of initiates. I'm just incredulous about this, we all have cars and motorbikes with dozens of splined ends but nobody knows anything about making their own.

Ken
Click to expand...

Ken,

I guess you could make your own if you had a spare shifter shaft.  You would need to grind the end flat to create sharp cutting edges on the splines, with a press you could then shove it through a pre-bored bit of alloy plate.... might be worth a try! :D

piet
 
Ken

I had some Motobits rearsets on my Guzzi. Beautiful bits of gear and pretty cheap I thought.

Smear some grease on the spline then push some paper against it, count the number of splines and send him the facsimile. He'll work it out.

Good choice.

Chris
 
Chris

Yeah, we're negotiating that option. He doesn't actually broach splines, he laboriously drills a hole and chases each spline tooth individually, I'm guessing on a mill, admits it takes him days. He says he doesn't know where to get spline broaches. I sent him a few links to suppliers, that hardware is easy enough to get but if you don't know where to begin with the measurements it's hard to order the right machine tools. I'm not sure if I can afford to finance his learning curve, so I'll probably just buy the bit from Wolfgang when he gets back.
Unless someone has a partially demolished shifter (or even a brake pedal, same spline) that is too far gone to repair but still has a usable splined end? Even if the clamp screw thread is stripped, I could use that with a clear conscience.

Ken
 
There are international standards for spline sizes and teeth. i've just been trying to source some broaches for my Rudge project.
I was shown some broaches yesterday which had just been landed from an Indian supplier. Very reasonable cost too.
The guy who had these is into making vintage AJS parts so he'd landed the sizes which suited his use. Available in most metric sizes and a pretty good selection of imperial too.Plus he'd landed hex and square as well.
One machinist local to me does internal splines on a slotter with a rotary table - quite quick too.
 
Depending on the complexity, if you've no other facilities you can do them in a normal lathe with a bit of persistence.  Grind a tool of an appropriate profile (you can eyeball it against the spline cut on the current arm) and use the carriage as a slotting head, and with a tape measure around the periphery of the chuck you can mark indexing points with enough accuracy for this sort of job.  For something in ally with a slot and clamp screw like a Lav shifter arm, it's not all that hard to get it close enough for it to tighten and work perfectly.

My preferred method is to get it done on a wire EDM, but the price of the machinery differs somewhat between the two methods.  :D

Cheers
Steve B
 
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