1948-1959 Fork cups

[VintageTwin]

We got a freight train comin'. I can hear it chuffin'....closer now...engineer's calling back to the stoker for more coal...

This from JW:

hey Kirk, glad to hear you got the brakes to work. sucks that the shoes were / are garbage.
Have you called Aleshia in returns yet? those forks might be under warranty still , she might just send you the pieces you need. I think she'd help you with that. I got Ted going crazy with those 49 cups. I got to see both blue prints that were done , of the 49 cup and the 60 cup. Not enough diff. to be 2 diff. cups . Must of been a bad sample. He said we should get a set from the guy you got yours. have you used them yet? And did everything fit together as it should? Also if we got a set from him as a sample , we'd start making good ones overseas , kinda sucks for that guy. Palmers book says they ( the cups) are interchangeable, your picture proves otherwise.
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*I'm sending them that cup over posted on the other forum. The one that has '48-59 written on it. It's OEM.

[Cotten]

The problem with Tedd's (or one of the problems) is that they will continue to sell the bad inventory until it is exhausted before introducing the better quality part.

This practice is not exclusive to Tedd in this industry.

[VintageTwin]

Well, there's more to it than that. I know what you mean, but I can't explain why it's done. I wish I could but the whole issue is too big. It has to do with the tons of parts that are in the bins and the lack of people to ferret out the good from the bad. Take those brake shoes for instance. The next guy that orders a complete backing plate may get good shoes and not oversize ones. And the fork cups? You heard JW. The "suits" don't know the difference and the suits won't listen to JW, until he makes them drag out the blueprints. You and I, and the people here, would know the difference. Now add to that mix, small batch production, poor quality control, and the need to keep the doors open and people employed. If you look back 10 years to now, is it better now than it was then? There was a time way back in the "white card" era, when alot of the parts on those "white" skin cards were bad. Bearing cages come to mind. They were all bad. It took time to get to the "red card" era we're in now. There's still bad parts out there, so as we find them, we have to warn people about them. They're like pot-holes in the road. The rest of the road is good, but there's these pot-holes and you have 60 days to look at your parts and return them. Stuff happens, like mbskeam said recently, "People have bad days, quality control wasn't there, mistakes get made, alot of things can happen along the way". In my narrow world of '41-59, I've hit every pot-hole there is to hit. Here's my list:

1. '54-up throttle spirals are no good. Get them from http://nosparts.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
2. Knuckle frame top motor mounts are wrong. Not an easy fix. Corbin Don can make the fix, but the logistics almost impossible to overcome.
3. Rigid rear brake linings are too thick. Get the shoes from Kick-Start.
4. The oil pump shut-off to the primary chain, but it's not going to be a problem for tin-enclosed belt drives.
5. The '49-59 Glide forks need some warnings before dis-assembly and installing on the machine. See the reasons later this week over on Forum 2, under Replica or Projects.
6. There has to be a # 6, I've forgoten about.

It's better than it use to be and it's geting better. If V-twin didn't like JW emailing me the facts, they would have issued a "cease and desist" by now. But here we are. So, I can only come up with five or six problem parts. That isn't too bad consider all the parts in a Big Twin. Some of this stuff like oil tank drain plugs with reverse threaded plugs and bungs are already fixed. Some of the problems like that, I can't put in Vol. 2, because they'll be fixed by the time it gets printed. We're moving forward. Before you buy any '41-59 parts, go look over to the other forum. If it's bad, it's been posted.
What's posted now are the procedures for getting the Panhead frame on wheels:
The fork lock. The handlebars. The fork cups. The rear brakes. The rest of it bolt's-on right out of the box. Taiwan's getting organized. The parts made by that "Triangle-H" company are tip-top. They even give you an extra roll pin with their fork lock. Heck, even Stanley door hinge doesn't give you an extra wood screw.