Sep 6 (edited)

1933 Raleigh disassembly and inspection.

So, I got started on the Raleigh today. It's going to be checked over, assembled to a safe, running, usable condition and then see if it needs to be kept or sent to a new home.
The rear axle actually has a little differential in it. The brakes will need to be cleaned up, possibly re-lined and I'm probably going to have to build a new sprocket since both of the used ones I have are worn out.
The sprocket that was in the axle seems to be vulcanized together but the spare unit has a proper cush drive built into it. The rubbers are still soft! I'll be building a new sprocket and using the cush drive in the axle when it goes back together.
I can't just buy a 51-tooth, 1/2" pitch, duplex sprocket. Go figure.

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Sep 6, 2026

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Replies (13)

· Sep 6

As someone that is having a bunch of transmission gears made. I'm interested to see how you get that sprocket made and how much it costs to do it. I'm guessing a lot less than my transmission gears.

· Sep 6

There's a couple options. I can buy a couple industrial sprockets and machine them to work with what I have. The blanks are only available as 50 tooth or 52 tooth so there will be a small difference.
Or, I can buy a dividing head for my milling machine, pull out my text books and do a bunch of math that will make my head hurt, then machine my own 51 tooth, duplex sprocket,
The industrial sprockets will have hardened teeth so they will last much longer, I would turn the old sprocket into a carrier and machine the new sprockets so they bolt to the carrier like a ring gear bolts to a flywheel. This would make future replacements easier and probably cost less than machining a whole new sprocket from blank steel.
I prefer using off-the-shelf parts and modifying them to suit my needs.

· Sep 6

Wow, you’re not kidding. Those sprockets are quite worn.

· Sep 6

Still have better teeth than an Alberta family reunion. 😅

· Sep 7

😂

· Sep 7

😂 Ever been accused of lying through your tooth?

· Sep 7

👍lol

· Sep 7

Just a little bit of wear...

Design flaw or heavily used do you think?

· Sep 7

Probably heavy use.
This was a commercial vehicle so it probably got as-necessary maintenance until it was so worn out that nobody wanted it anymore.

· Sep 7

I agree. My Royale transmission on the other hand as a design flaw.

· Sep 7

Is there a way to change to conventional gears in that transmission? Originality is great but if a modern gear profile would solve the problem and cost less, it might be something to think about.

(edited)

· Sep 7

Shawn, not sure you saw my post in the Royale forum, but Liberty Gears is going to do a full analysis on the transmission and give me a bunch of choices. The absolute minimum thing I have to do is replace the one gear, but I'm open to a lot of things including changing the ratios.

· Sep 8

The shaft on the right is the lower one and I believe it goes 1,2,3,4 from the top of the photo. You can see the chips in 3rd. Probably from over hardening? We made that gear 10 years ago. Out of the three transmissions I had access to, all of them had chips in 3rd gear. The theory being the rivets loosen over time. That wasn't the issue in my new how, however.