Mirrors- I have the wrong ones.

[houseowax]

As I have every other post, I have to start this one off by stating that I have virtually no idea what I'm doing. My bike is my first and I'm learning to repair and restore thanks to Bill Silver's disc and this forum. Making some progress but often find myself at a complete loss.

Which brings me to my question:

I have a '63 CA77 which I believe is an 'early' model although I can't confirm that. It has no mirrors. I figured this would be easily rectified, but the "CA77 Mirrors" if bought on eBay have a threaded portion that is way to long and way too narrow. Using my drill bit gauge the threaded portion appears to be somewhere around 7.54 mm in diameter and around 2 inches long. My perches seem to want a much shorter and thicker stem. Please, no snickering- I can't think of a less suggestive way to put it.

I see discussions of 8mm and 10 mm stems but mine seem to be neither. They are rectangular mirrors and are mint, 'SKY' brand from Thailand and are probably available for 45 bucks on eBay right now.

Any advice? What mirrors do I need and can I get them, or is this going to be harder than I thought? I saw a discussion of drilling and tapping etc, but I'm no machinist.

Anyone want them? - I paid 45 and (obviously) never used them. I'll let them go for 35 including US postage. PM me if you're interested.

Thanks all.

[G-Man]

You appear to have 8mm ones for the early Dream with Pressed Steel handlebars. You probably need 10mm ones.

The 7.54 you mention is 8mm as 8mm is never really 8mm you need to have clearance fo rthe two parts to fit together.

Regards

G

[houseowax]

Thanks for your help, G.

I'm attaching a pic of the mirror's threaded stem set into my perch so you can see the difference. It's hitting the bottom/bar in the pic so you can see there's quite a bit of threaded stem there. My understanding was that 8mm was what was used in earlier model bikes; the switch to 10 mm came later (mid-late 60's?).
My bike is a '63- does this mean my perches have been switched out? I'm not THAT much of a purist that it would matter to me; just trying to understand my bike and it's history a little better.

[G-Man]

Yep - looks like you have later perches. You could get 10mm mirrors or look for 8mm perches. The long threaded portions of your mirrors are for bikes like mine with the low pressed-steel handlebars. On those bikes the mirrors go in a threaded hole that goes right through.

[e3steve]

Thanks for your help, G.

I'm attaching a pic of the mirror's threaded stem set into my perch so you can see the difference. It's hitting the bottom/bar in the pic so you can see there's quite a bit of threaded stem there. My understanding was that 8mm was what was used in earlier model bikes; the switch to 10 mm came later (mid-late 60's?).
My bike is a '63- does this mean my perches have been switched out? I'm not THAT much of a purist that it would matter to me; just trying to understand my bike and it's history a little better.

Any 10mm-threaded mirror stems would, I believe, be AM, as they were never produced for our models.

Your perches appear to have had knackered threads and, therefore, probably been re-tapped to M10 or something imperial (instead of being Helicoiled).

Run the locknut all the way onto the mirror stem and cut the threaded portion off at 20mm protrusion; file the cut end flat then run the nut to the cut end to clean up the thread.

Two possible perch solutions:

• 1. Pick up a Helicoil or Recoil re-threading kit from any good tool shop; these come with their own tread-repair tap.
  2. Get a new pair of perches off eBay

If you need a Recoil kit, let me know and I can get you one here and send it to you. I've just calculated from Euros and it would end up costing me US$66, plus about $25 shipping to you. You should be able to get a Helicoil (or the better Australian 'Recoil') from your side for just over half that cost.

Here's your North American Recoil product from Allied Electronics http://www.alliedelec.com/search/produc ... &MPN=35088 plus postage plus tax
Here's mine (same product 35088) http://es.rs-online.com/web/search/sear ... &R=0528615 plus postage plus 16% tax plus my postage to you

[e3steve]

Two possible perch solutions:

• 1. Pick up a Helicoil or Recoil re-threading kit from any good tool shop; these come with their own tread-repair tap.
  2. Get a new pair of perches off eBay

These will do the job.

[e3steve]

And if your still want to sell on your 'wrong' mirrors rather than cut the threading shorter, here's a proper pair.