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Due to time and moisture the windshield posts on the speedster can typically become fused into position and can be very stubborn to remove. Alot of guys get impatient and resort to sawing the post off at the base rendering the part completely useless and very difficult to repair correctly. When you consider the mount face of the post is angle cut and the shank is set at a specific compound angle coming out of the post bottom you are faced with a very difficult challenge of "reshanking" this part accurately. Alot of guys try the reproduction W/S posts that have been on the market for years but I have heard the stories that thier posts are set at the wrong angles and lay back too far causing misalignment with the original frame and its mounts. Not to mention originals are so expensive now that they are well worth saving.
I had this left original post which suffered this fate. Because it is so critical to get the post in right position there as only one guy I knew who would be capable and willing to take up the challange; my good friend and machinist Bill. I had a prestine original for Bill to work off of to set all the angles. It would have been impossible to set right without this example. He built a special holding jig based off the good one and found the exact upright center of the shank. Once established he drilled out what was left of the old shank. He was right on the money; as it bored into the part it completely ate up the old shank affirming the he had the correct angle dialed in. My inital thought was to press fit a new shank but Bill said the force required to do that properly might damage the part and due to its shape would also make very hard to hold into position. He recommended we tap it, use lock tight and really crank it in there, "it will never come loose". So this is what we did. Pictured above is the new drilled and tapped hole for the new shank.
I had this left original post which suffered this fate. Because it is so critical to get the post in right position there as only one guy I knew who would be capable and willing to take up the challange; my good friend and machinist Bill. I had a prestine original for Bill to work off of to set all the angles. It would have been impossible to set right without this example. He built a special holding jig based off the good one and found the exact upright center of the shank. Once established he drilled out what was left of the old shank. He was right on the money; as it bored into the part it completely ate up the old shank affirming the he had the correct angle dialed in. My inital thought was to press fit a new shank but Bill said the force required to do that properly might damage the part and due to its shape would also make very hard to hold into position. He recommended we tap it, use lock tight and really crank it in there, "it will never come loose". So this is what we did. Pictured above is the new drilled and tapped hole for the new shank.
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