I just began to re-assemble my old soldier today after some cleaning and polishing...and I am having a bit of an issue with the integrated headset. It seems I can't get it tightened down to my satisfaction, and when it does get tight...it is too tight. I have checked the bearings and all is well...they are inserted correctly. Now comes another question. When disassembling the headset to clean and re-grease...I found out the hard way that the headset contains approximately 200-300 bearings (exageration but those who have dealt with these know!). I had other bearings lying around and they seemed to fit precisely into the races without any problems and felt fine during trial...but once tightened...these are the ones giving me the problem. So, do I need to located someone with about 200 bearings so put the old ones back into place?? I found most of them but I guarentee I will come up short on the old ones.
For date, the bike is a 1949. Thanks for any advice...
Walt Skrzypek
Falls Creek, Pa