Classic & Vintage - vintage campy drivetrain, cottered cranks and old brakes

Last night I was going to make a few bucks wrenching and I got in over my depth. I showed up at this woman's house to put her bike together after she had tried to work on it. The bike was a beutiful italian fram (Atala I think) The frame was white with loose bearings in the headset, chromed lugs, fork ends and dropouts. The whole nine yards. Rear derailer (probably not original) was some kind of suntour monstrosity that I could figure out because it had high/low screws. The Front derailer was was a bottom pull Campy. Mechanism was bottom-pull, the actual derailer body was squareand sits behind the seat tube. It has a single adjustment screw on top. Anybody ever seen one of these? The chain was binding between the cage and the big ring when I tried to shift up. This could be because the cage looks a lot higher off the ring than a modern FD would be. Then again, it could be in the right place for older equipment.

Anyhow, need a good source of advice on the FD, cottered crank removal and adjusting the old road brakes that have the canti-esque wire loop that connects to a hanger on the brake cable. I haven't seen components like this since I took apart an old road bike when I was 10. I'd like to do a better job with this one.

Thanks,
Chuck

Chuck,

I believe that you are describing a Gran Sport front Derailleur. Came out
in the 50's (1951 I believe) and was in production until mid to early 60's
(I want to say 63, but may be wrong here).
Check Campy Only (http://www.campyonly.com/)
or Classic Rendezvous (http://www.classicrendezvous.com)
for more info. Campy Only has very good technical advice.

I'm attaching picture of the derailleur below:

Marty

That's the one. Thanks for the tip. Now I'm off to scout for the tech. info.

-Chuck

The Campag. Gran Sport front derailleur is easy to adjust. First, slacken the front cable and make three adjustments: 1) HEIGHT: as the cage moves outward, it should clear the teeth of the larger chainring by no more than 2mm; 2) ROTATION: the cage should be parallel to the chainrings; 3) CAGE POSITION: with the chain in low gear (small front/large rear), the inner wall of the cage should clear the chain by about a mm. Now run through the gears and set the limit screw so that, when the chain is in large front/small rear, the cage just clears the outer edge of the chain.

Do not expect any miracles out of this derailleur, which died a merciful death when Campag. introduced the vastly superior trapeze-style Record in 1962 or 1963. However, the old Gran Sport can shift a half-step rig, with a 3-6 tooth drop, adequately, if one eases up on the pedal load while shifting.

John,

Thanks for the how-to. The Gran Sport stumped the tech guy at Campy Only, so I was begining to get a little worried.