John Barron wrote: I have owned at least 2 NOS old steel Campy Record rear ders that had plastic pulley wheels. I've also owned NOS Record rears with steel wheels.
Can others tell me whether they know, or believe that the later runs of steel Record rear ders came with plastic pulley wheels? (Earlier ones of that model "for sure" came with steel wheels).
As we know, it's plausible that the first/original owners of the NOS Record rears that I had changed out the steel wheels for the space-age plastic ones... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ John, this puzzles me. I've never seen a "steel" Record with the sleeve-bearing plastic pulley wheels; all that I've seen have had steel pulleys with cup-and-cone ball bearings. And, that is significant. On the one I just checked (but it matches my memory of the others) the outer plate that holds the pulleys is chromed steel, and has a cast-in tab that mates with a slot on one cone of the pulley (The cones thread together for adjusting slack). That tab allows easy adjustment, since a thin wrench is only needed on the other side. In contrast (for both of you who are still with me) the plastic pulleys want to mount on a flat surface without the raised tab.
So, one suggestion is to remove the pulleys and look closely at the outer pulley mounting plate. If there was a tab, but it was filed off, I'd suspect it was aftermarket replacement. If the surface has smooth chrome and no tab, then the tab was gone before chroming, and it would suggest that Campy meant to use the plastic pulleys on some records. Not a perfect test, but pretty good circumstantial evidence.
harvey sachs
mcLean va