My Sears Roper Question

#1
New to the forums and picked up a Sears Roper off CL. It's in pretty good shape. Some rust, pitting, etc. not the stock motor and the PO added some metal straps to extant the engine plate (maybe another issue down the road).

It had the high speed fork option which I bent back to shape on a machine at work. Question: the fork has some play/slop that I don't remember noticing before once I assembled it. The fork has no bearings, just one bushing on top and bottom plates of the tree (1 on each) and top and bottom of the steering tube. 4 bushings total. When I put the fork in there's a small gap leading to some play. I put a washer in there to fill the gap but I know that's not the right solution. Am I missing a bushing/spacer or could I have maybe separated the two plates on the fork tree during bending? I also had to bend the handlebar a bit with some heat to make it straight. Any help appreciated. And I am sure more questions to come. I'll work on loading a pic soon. Thanks.
 
#4

Here Is a pic of the steering tube area. You can see the washer I added which slipped over the bushing a bit but still reduced the gap. Any Roper guys know what's missing?
 
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markus

Well-Known Member
#5
I dont think your really missing anything, just have some wear. The bronze bushings that work as a replacement for the headtube ( looks like you have one on the bottom) have a little thinner flange than the original steel bushings. I just went through and serviced a Roper and changed the steel ones out to bronze ones which was a big improvement as the steel ones were pretty worn out and I used machine spacers to take up the slack between the trees.

Original on the left:



If you have the original steering head bolt, its stepped at the threads on the bottom to prevent you from over tightening, those bushings on the fork plates hopefully arent too egged out as those would be harder to find or make a replacement for, but that is the next place to look for excessive slop. I was pretty lucky and got most slop out by just replacing the headtube bushings and setting the spacing tight between headtube and trees. So when the bolt is bottomed out on the step it got it all "tight" but did not hinder the steering movement. Just doing that actually made a huge difference in the feel of the bike when riding it, before it had some washers on the bottom and the headtube bolt cranked down trying to tighten the slop out like yours is in the pic.

Heres the one I went though, It had bent (only very slight) forks as well so it all had to come apart and be reworked ont he shop press. etc.. sorry cant get any close up shots of the headtube all together with the new parts, the bike has been sold and and now lives up in PA.




Good luck with it :thumbsup:
 
#8
Thanks for the response. I'm going to see if I can find some bushings. There's a good hardware store in town here that seems to carry lots of hard to find stuff. That Roper you had looks mint. Nice work.
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#9
Thanks for the response. I'm going to see if I can find some bushings. There's a good hardware store in town here that seems to carry lots of hard to find stuff. That Roper you had looks mint. Nice work.
Its a standard bushing, a hardware store with good selection will have them, they are 5/8"x 3/4" bronze and a typical bushing used on other mini bikes on swingarms and headtubes. They can usually be bought a few bucks cheaper through mini bike/kart suppliers than at the hardware, so if your planning on any mail order you may want to just get them there if you planning a bulk/discounted shipping buy or anything like that. The hardware will have the machine washers too usually, My store has 2 or three different thicknesses in 5/8" they are great for using on axles and jackshafts/etc. as well because they are thin and not wider than the heads or nuts usually. Putting them between head/nut and frame help with buggering new paint or powdercoat and not stick out like sore thumb!

Thanks on the chrome bike, I had the pleasure of having that in my possession twice in 7 years. I cant ever afford to keep bikes but it was neat to have it for awhile anyway :thumbsup:
 
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