Fatboy Issues

SeanC

SeanC

Messages
1,958
Location
London
I came across what looked like, superficially anyway, a good condition fat boy for a reasonable price.

Unfortunately there are some significant mechanical issues:
  • The blade gap is uneven from left to right (I know how to fix this by gently bending, but have left for now)
  • The TTO does not work properly. On most occasions, the bar linked to the doors fails to gain any traction from the TTO knob i.e. you turn the TTO knob and it just goes round. When it does gain traction intermittently, the razor doesn't lock down properly and the TTO knob will turn round indefinitely.
Cosmetically it's in a good shape and doesn't need a replate.

The razor is an E4 and therefore can be dismantled easily. I have done this and de-gunked the razor. Inside there is just one obvious fault. The TTO knob has a fairly lose fit and can easily be pulled off by hand. I can't however see a direct link between this and the symptoms as it should be academic when everything is tightened up. The spring seems to be tight and I can't see any other obvious issues.

I've looked at various tutorials by Captain Murphy and others, but can't find any obvious solutions.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what to try / look at or failing that, do we have an active repairer in the UK at the moment?
 
SeanC said:
I came across what looked like, superficially anyway, a good condition fat boy for a reasonable price.

Unfortunately there are some significant mechanical issues:
  • The blade gap is uneven from left to right (I know how to fix this by gently bending, but have left for now)
  • The TTO does not work properly. On most occasions, the bar linked to the doors fails to gain any traction from the TTO knob i.e. you turn the TTO knob and it just goes round. When it does gain traction intermittently, the razor doesn't lock down properly and the TTO knob will turn round indefinitely.
Cosmetically it's in a good shape and doesn't need a replate.

The razor is an E4 and therefore can be dismantled easily. I have done this and de-gunked the razor. Inside there is just one obvious fault. The TTO knob has a fairly lose fit and can easily be pulled off by hand. I can't however see a direct link between this and the symptoms as it should be academic when everything is tightened up. The spring seems to be tight and I can't see any other obvious issues.

I've looked at various tutorials by Captain Murphy and others, but can't find any obvious solutions.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what to try / look at or failing that, do we have an active repairer in the UK at the moment?
Click to expand...

If you have no luck finding anyone here in the UK, you could do a lot worse than send it to Anel Causevic in Slovenia. He just straightened out a Fatboy for me & is a top fella.
 
You might want to try asking over at B&B and post a few pics, what doesn't seem obvious to you might be to one of the many FB users they have over there.
 
Turning the TTO, regardless that the knob isn't solidly swaged into the bottom of the barrel, should still draw the push bar down and close the doors. The very first thing I'd be looking at is the threads inside the TTO knob.

The keyed end of the push rod goes through a little threaded collar inside the TTO knob. This is drawn down by the thread that is visible inside the end of the TTO and I've never seen those damaged that much. Here's an image I nicked off the interwebs to demonstrate:

Fatboy TTO Knob Disassembled.jpg

If you're still stumped. I'd be more than happy to take alook at it for you.
 
Thanks for the suggestions all. I've already checked for 'underclocking', but the picture supplied by @Wishbone yields some major clues in that the threaded collar is stuck fast inside the TTO knob due to crud and corrosion. I'm going to leave the whole thing in WD40 overnight and see if that helps unseize it.
 
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Sean ....... If the threaded collar is siezed, the TTO knob won't turn at all as the push rod is keyed where it pases through the collar.

As the TTO knob is off the barrel ....... withdraw the push rod / centre bar / doors assembly from the razor and fit it directly through the top of the knob into the collar and see if you can turn it. As you're turning it, push gently on the rod. You're looking to get that collar to move back and forth along the thread inside the knob.

Edit: Don't use too much force on the push rod while you're doing this. The assembly is sturdy enough, but you don't want to bend the geometry out of whack. It sounds as though the razor needs realigning anyway, but best not to make too much work.
 
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