Wheels - 4; New Bearings, Brakes and Tyres

I pretty much just followed the manual to replace the wheel bearings. 

But I did have a few little issues. Firstly, I hadn't realised that there are actually 3 bearings in the back wheel - 2 in the hub and another in the QD sprocket carrier / brake. I had to wait for (yet another!) parcel delivery.

On the back wheel, I struggled to get the second hub bearing out. There is a distance piece between the two bearings and a cutout which should let you get a drift onto the inner race of the second bearing but I just couldn't get enough purchase/force onto it that way (it has been sat there for probably 60 years!)

My solution was to use a "Rawlplug" Expanding masonry bolt - by inserting it through the bearing and then expanding it I could then get a drift onto the back of the bolt and drive it out from the other side - worked a treat!

 

The final issue I had was that the front bearings can bind up if the inner race is preloaded against the hub. This happened to me and the tip I got from one of the forums was to undo the retaining nut and tap the axle on the opposite side - this just eased the bearing back off the shoulder and stopped it binding.

I haven't really done much refurbishment of the brakes; just serviced them really, making sure that all of the pivots and operating arms were free to move and greased up etc.  Obviously I took all the precautions about old brake dust etc as I was stripping and cleaning them. 

The brake linings are still quite thick, so I'm going to see how they perform before I decide whether to fit new linings or not. It may be an early upgrade! The drums are also in good condition so I just cleaned those up.

More work was needed on the rear. The brake drum is in a unit with the rear sprocket and also includes the cush drive rubbers. This allows the rear wheel to be removed from the bike (e.g. to repair a puncture) while the unit stays attached to the swinging arm and you don't have to touch the chain and brake adjustments etc. The sprocket teeth still have some life left in them so I'm leaving for now, but cleaned up everything and repainted. The cush drive rubbers are 60 years old so I concluded that they probably wouldn't have much "cush" left in them and fitted new ones!

I also reinstalled the brake light switch on the frame and have fitted a new brake lever pivot. I think the original was probably bent in an "off" and had been replaced by a motley collection of bolts, washers and nuts!

"QD" brake/sprocket unit reinstalled in the swinging arm.

Cheap tyres are available in "classic" tread patterns and sizes, but I decided to go for something decent and ordered Avon Speedmaster (front) and Safety Mileage II (rear). These use the original tread pattern but I think a more modern rubber compound. They get good reviews anyway. A(nother) nice parcel arrived.

New rim tapes were installed and the tyres went on OK. After the trauma of my last attempt at fitting new tyres some years ago, I did a bit of You Tube research this time before I started! The secret in my case was to slightly inflate the inner tubes first and fit them into the tyre BEFORE you start to get the first side bead onto the rim. After that, it's mostly a case of making sure that the beads are well down into the well of the rim to make sure that you have as much bead to play with as possible when you are levering the last part on.

I've seen videos showing that you might need to inflate to high pressure to seat the beads correctly, but mine seem to be evenly located looking at the lines around the tyre wall. If necessary, I can look at that once on the road.

I like this photo comparing the old and new wheels:

The shed has been painted since I started as well!!