Bent ear, headlight bucket "Meatball mechanic fix"

gggGary

gggGary

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I see a lot of bikes with bent ears from a tip over getting the turnsignal. I was doing some R&R on the front of the 73 and that bent ear was bugging me. These are after shots but this method really helped and it was "quick and dirty".
For the ear, a chunk of 2x6 across the whole ear, you want to bridge the round tube that covers the fork, and a big c-clamp brought it back nicely. pic was a "recreation" I removed the rubber gasket before straightening. Doing it again I might add a 1/4" of plywood at the front so "spring back" would have it about straight. Afterwards I used a pair of channel locks with tape on the jaws to carefully straighten the wave that always shows up on the top and bottom edge of the ear after it's been bent, stretched, The paint even stayed mostly in place.

ear fix.jpg

A caved in "ear mount" on the headlight bucket almost always goes with the bent ear. a lag bolt and washers greatly improved that also. size the washers so the inside fits "inside" and the outside washer covers the whole "knob" then draw the cave in out by tightening the nut.

ear fix2.jpg

Just a fix r up.

View attachment 55421
 
The method I use involves a long length of all-thread rod with a couple nuts and washers on each end. Remove the headlight bucket and put this in it's place. Measure the width of the bucket and adjust the inner nuts on both sides to achieve that. Tighten the outer nuts to straighten the ear(s). Besides straightening the ears, this has the added bonus of making the headlight mounting points parallel to one another.
 
On the chrome Special headlight ears I recently found a quick way to put the bend back.
Remove the headlight bucket.
Remove the tank.
Swing the ear back to where it's laying against the forward tank mount and persuade it into the proper bend by tapping it with a rubber mallet utilizing the frame/mount as a backstop.
Don't do this with painted ears........
 
An old thread and yes 5T the long piece of all thread with nuts and washers is the best way to "unbend" a headlight bucket. working around the rim romoving kinks and getting it back to round will be needed too.
For real ear work they need to be off the bike cuz you gotta work both the outer sheetmetal and and the inner brace. smaller hammers drifts of various shapes an anvil of some sort all help. Hint work incrementally, it all got bent at once so it all needs to be moved back into the stock position together, unbend one part a bit then work all the supporting pieces, repeat till you are happy. :bike:
 
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