Anthropy

I have a nice S marked stem that came off of my old '76 schwinn super le tour. I was in an accident years ago with it (frame was toast). The stems split wedge point is cracked almost through. The last month, I dug it out of the pile of spare parts I have and was thinking that I might be able to cut off the damaged part and fab up an aluminum insert up the stem, weld it into place and convert it from the conical wedge to the side tapered wedge bolt. This has the recessed cap screw like you see on some of the SR marked stems. Stem is 0.833 inch diameter.

Anyway, I thought of the repair, since I have not seen any of this type of stem for sale anywhere. I have seen SR marked stems, but no S marked ones.

Does this sound crazy to repair an old stem?


Tom

Sixty Fiver

Ya know... I have a shiny S marked stem in my parts bin that needs a new home.

Let me go and dig it out and take a picture and some measurements.

sailorbenjamin

Schwinn stems are of a little different dimension than most but they aren't that rare. I think I'd go to Ebay (or 65er).
Then again, just trimming the cracked part off the end and having a shorter stem might be pretty easy.

Anthropy

Thanks for taking the time to look Sixty Fiver.

Yes, I thought about just cutting off the bad part and then make the upward cut, but I do not know if there is enough thin material on the inside for the cone wedge, but might be enough to do the angle wedge.


Tom

Sixty Fiver

Here we go... .833 S stem with 90mm extension... it is missing it's clamp bolt.



It's yours if you want it as I will never use it... make a donation to the 2011 "Places I Never Kissed a Girl Tour" and it's yours.

Anthropy

Awsome.

If it is like mine, it is marked 1175. I am assuming that is the model number. I sure would love it. How do I make the donation? I'll PM you with my address.

Thank you so much.


Tom

Sixty Fiver

It is a 1177... am not sure what that means and it might be a date code... some Schwinnophile will probably know better.

Sixty Fiver

I am sure this came to be in a box full of random parts a long time ago... has been collecting dust ever since as older Schwinns are about as rare a bike as one would ever see here.

3alarmer 

Pretty much. I guess it does to you, too,
or you wouldn't be asking.

Anthropy

Yes, I know it was a silly question, but you never know till you ask. Sixty Fiver graciously fixed me up with a replacment. - Thanks very much.


One thing I did learn. I trimmed off the broken ears to the top of the slit and found the wall thickness to be around 0.10 inches, so the hole is not straight bored from the bottom, but rather it is taper bored. So the taper I think matches the taper of the conical expander plug.

Strange that Schwinn used the taper expander rather than the more common angle expander. But the angle expanders seem to be all cast steel, where as the cone expander can be machined.

Tom

Anthropy

Here is a picture I took (camera phone) of the cross section. Note the taper. Also note the stepped tapper inside the stem.

Sixty Fiver

Many stems from this era use a cone expander... Cinelli used these into the 80's.