Bent Fork Brace ('71 R75/5)

[adamw]

Putting the front end back together and am having with the fork brace. The fork tubes are installed and torqued at the lower clamp. Top nuts are hand tight. I can put the axle in and it spins freely. I've read that the axle is suppose to move freely.
The fork brace had to be bent together using a pipe clamp as the holes did not match up with the studs. They do now and the brace goes on with out force. I can torque the two nuts on right (facing the front of the bike) and the axle still spins freely and moves back and forth. I can tighten the nuts on the left by hand and still get movement from the axle. Once I start to torque the left side, it seizes up any movement on the axle. The issue follows the same side of the brace if I install it upside down. I noticed a wedge of space on the left (shown in pic) side and saw that once that starts closing up, the axle seizes. I made some shims and tried to fill the space so the but it doesnt help.

Am now looking for assistance on this issue. -Adam

 

[drost]

I had the same issue (gap only) when I restored my r60/5. Knowing that my my fork tubes were set right I simply made a shim from a feeler gauge, horse shoe shape so I could slide it in. Removed my springs and retightened top nuts, with fork brace tight and axle installed there was no binding.

 

[cwroady]

I have had to resort to shims before in order to maintain a freely turning axle in various fork positions on a 60/5 I had.