Adventures of trike repairman

[Toolmaker51]

C-bag strict procedures have their place many of us have over the years developed our own as well as use those found in books like the Colvin & Stanley American machinist handbook. And the ever present Bible the Machinery Handbook

Correct. I still have and treasure my original Machinery's Handbook[s]. They change over the years to remain topical, of course, or they wouldn't sell continually.
Once I was aware of Colvin's, Mark's Std Engineering, and the others, especially printed by machinery manufacturers [DoAll, Warner & Swazey, and yes even Bridgeport], began pursuit of those as well.
Strict conventions support things like interchangeability, as results, lesser so than the means. Like the internet and personal computing, they can't respond to innovation instantaneously, which in consideration isn't so bad.
Once it makes it into Machinery Handbook, its gospel. Solid, repeatable and extends as far as the reader base. Not unlike HMT.net at it's level; 15,000 some-odd deep.
And to C-Bag's whoda thunk, I repeat. Regardless the level of involvement, this is far more than just a hobby. Matters not whether you produce income or satisfaction. Perhaps those who do so for satisfaction are the real practitioners.

[C-Bag]

And to C-Bag's whoda thunk, I repeat. Regardless the level of involvement, this is far more than just a hobby. Matters not whether you produce income or satisfaction. Perhaps those who do so for satisfaction are the real practitioners.

With the cost and complication of recumbent trikes, they never get as affordable as two wheels. So I would have thought the quality of such a front end would have been higher too. But I was surprised to find the lower bushings in both knuckles floating loose and the uppers just barely tight. And the diameters of knuckle races different and like I mentioned .002 out of round. While probably not unsafe it made accurate alignment and surprisingly, brake adjustment impossible.

I don't know of any bike shops around here that have even a cheap lathe and mill so this truly turned into a labor of satisfaction. Obviously I was going to be deeply disappointed if I did all this precision engineering of fitting each of the 4 bushings individually for a .003 press fit, then making a .0015 king pin fit to the bushings. Then fitting the knuckles to the frames. Luckily it was worth it.

I've never gotten to check a new one of these models much less another used one so I have no idea if this is standard to the maker. For all I know they set it up to have this much play so it would steer freely, or more than likely was like where I used to work. Where the poor guy in the machine shop was working with worn out equipment and was over worked and underpaid. The person who did the assembly was just getting paid to crank out units and liked the fact he didn't have to go over to the press(who knows if they had one out in assembly, we didn't) to put the bushings in the knuckle with his fingers and they called it good. Too bad as alignment makes a huge difference in the feel of these things and having a loose front end bombing down a hill on dirt was a scary proposition before. Not now according to my fearless SO.

Still not gotten a chance to do the "downhill dyno" (good one TM51) but I've gotten no squawks from the pilot as she uses the trike to walk the dog. She reports having good brakes and smooth control as scares the locals and their dogs as she flys past feeling like a kid