Sorry to read about this set-back. Are you going to make a repair or buy a replacement fret from Backwoods?

Hope some of this helps...

Not sure the length of the small brass bush is an issue - on the rear cranks mine only pass through the outside rod. On the front cranks the bush should be filed down to only just thicker than the rod. I fitted mine to the cranks with low melt 70 degree solder. Anything higher than that and you will unsolder the bosses from the rods.

Washers - there are already some small nickel washers provided, I used two of these on the front cranks to space the rods out correctly. So working out from the frame I have crank/2 nickel washers/rod with boss/brass bush.

I can't see any bosses overlaid over the rods on the picture above. These are *crucial*, without them there is very little metal left on the rods once they have been opened out to fit the brass bush through.

Yes, the lack of boss on that rod definitely didn't help. It was present originally, but ended up firmly soldered to a bush in one of my earlier cock-ups. Rather foolishly, I thought that simply having a second washer over the top as a spacer would suffice - that's clearly not a mistake that I'm likely to make ever again!

The supplied washers were another error on my part - I assumed that they needed to be passed over the bush - wrong again. I did, however, use them on the other side.

Finally... 70 degree solder... I've got some of that somewhere too, for the contacts. B*gger Though I msy need to tweak the quartering anyway at this rate.

My first port of call is going to be to attempt to make a replacement rod - for two reasons. Firstly, because if I can manage it, it'll be a valuable skill to develop and cheaper to boot. Secondly, and probably more importantly: Pride. I've cocked this up enough already, and having asked about replacement bits for my single Fairlie from the very helpful Pete & Jen at Backwoods, they're probably of the opinion by now that I can't construct a coherent sentence, let alone an etched chassis... and they may be right. Nevertheless, I'm going to bloody well fix this!

I think unfortunately you've been hit with the crappy design of Backwoods chassis.

Is the front axle moving back and forwards along the length of the chassis? as I found this to be a very weak point and poor design in the Lyn chassis as there is just not enough bearing surface to hold it all from oscillating back and forth while in motion so it effects the quartering when in motion.

I struggled for hours with this until I eventually soldered bearings into the outer frame and did away with the compensation which cured it immediately.

Dont give up though keep at it as its not to hard to make some new rods, just temp solder them to a piece of scrap etch and file them up before unsoldering them.

I've already been through all this so I understand how you feel.

Nice job with the LR btw.

Darren.

The track that I went into with the rover didn't look like it dropped off quite as sharply as it did!

There appears to be some very slight movement in the axle forwards and backwards, though I'm not sure if that's the problem yet. I'll wait until I've got the rods sorted before I make a decision either way on what to do about the compensation.

Any photos of Lyn to share?