The Cal-look Lounge

What era is this linkage? 1980's or 1990's?

Probably '80s to mid '90s, the later ones had the throttle stop screws straight up through the angle iron.  The earlier ones have nuts welded in place and at an angle for the throttle stops.  I think they went to the later version sometime in the '90s and I would bet it was after Andy got there.  He tried to simplify the manufacturing process where possible.  That would mean the change would have been after '96 ...my guess.

I just took another look and the color is the gold iridite.  I believe that they nickel plate it then apply the gold color that changed while Gene was still alive and they eliminated the gold and just left them nickel.  That would probably put it back into the '80s, but not for sure.

Thanks Don 80's was my "guess" because they have not been gold in a long time.

Is it for sale?  ;)

Hey Roland it may be, Java Bug is already on me about it. I will let you know when he decides.

Heck I have two of those.  I still have to strip paint of the one I got from Mark Reilly.  It looks really ugly with maroon paint all over it.  And no they are not for sale at this time.

I bought a new one in 1992 and it was not gold but a really crappy looking zinc galvanized and had the angled throttle stops. I then bought another in 1995 and it had the straight throttle stops again with crappy galvanized finish.

Yeah this one is "nice looking" considering it complex Rube Goldberg nature.

It is not galvanized.  It is nickel plate and that's the way it looks.  I plan on getting one of my done in  black chrome.  Someday....

I have an old one that is painted in blue "Hammertone" paint.
When did they stop doing that ?
 ???

The old Early Blue Hammertone ones had a Center Brace that bolted to the lower Gen bolt also that was early 70's, late 70's they dropped the bottom Brace but they were still Blue Hammertone see the lower brace in the Picture plus the early linkage only had one hole on each side for the linkage arms

I remember the linkage for my 1st set of 48's was the blue Berg  w/ the brace down the backing plate. Speedwell also made a linkage that was very similar to the Bergs that had a black crinkle finish, I bought a few of them @ one of their swaps back in the early 90's. The linkage on my car now I bought in about 90' or 91' was silver so I would say the gold finish is from the 80's also.

here's my speedwell linkage on my engine and my old berg 

That blue is pretty sweet.  Reminds me of an old tool of some sort.

The Old Berg Linkage also just had metal tabs bent up on the ends and a tab welded in the middle for the linkage bar, from what I remember they alway had alot of side to side movement (Sloppy) The newer verisions have a bolt down ilot where it is adjustable the angle iron frame is slotted so you can adjust the side to side movement look at the differences in the pictures also  rounded all the edges over the years  but even today it looks a little Stone Age  ;D

The Speedwell linkage was around in the late 60's , The Bergs came around the 70's.. I like the fact the Speedwell had the black winkle paint finish on them. just like their grill bezels did...

The Speedwell linkage was (and is) streets ahead of the Berg one in terms of design and finish – no welded piles of washers, but machined aluminum blocks etc. I wish Berg would spend more time on making the linkage look better...  >:( IMHO, of course!

More like something that fell off a shopping cart.

--louis

The one thing I've never liked about the look of the Berg linkage is the cut-out for the coil. Perhaps they should offer it with or without coil cut-out? I mean, how many people with Berg linkages actually use the coil in the stock location?

I do, or will as soon as my new one arrives.

--louis

There's always one... ::)   ;)

Hmmmm,

Actually, my Coil is in the Stock Location as well... ;) ::) ::)

Frank

The real question is: who would not use the coil in the stock location?! ;D

Perhaps the same people that don't use German fan shrouds...

Any body up for an Very Early Equalizer style pulley!!!

did they unearth that in some digs in Iran or something? Mesopotamians invent heavy VW crank pulley?

The pics of the old Berg linkages are cool, but they just look like they should have swivel wheels and a Sealy Posturpedic on them for some reason.   ;D

I have owned both, and I have to say you are right. The Berg version looks more "hardware store" than the Speedwell.

BTW Who fits a coil anyway?  ;)

LOL Dave Looks like a GM A/C compressor pulley welded to a Stock Crank Pulley  more Cave Man Crap ;D

Did The Bergs ever sell Chrome Linkage setups? I picked this one up not to long ago. It's (rusty) chrome but appears to have blue hammer tone on the carb arms.

(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g265/racebug67/IMGP1721.jpg)

(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g265/racebug67/RotationofIMGP1722.jpg)

My early Berg linkage has rounded edges vs the sharp ones I am used to see. Like the one above.
Has anybody ever seen one like mine with rounded edges? Is it original or was it modified by a previous owner?
I remember a comment from Mr Gabbard about this modification.
Thank you
Xavier

I purchased my Berg linkage in 1983. It has the "square edge" arms, not rounded like those in the photo, and no nuts or any typre of stops welded on the ends of the cross bar.

This likely doesn't benefit the original poster but the finish on that one (and the finish on the one I own and most of the others I've seen) is not nickel. It's a standard zinc plate. And the gold tone is a yellow chromate conversion, not Iridite (Iridite is an aluminum conversion coating). That's the same basic plating/conversion process that most fastener manufacturers use. You can easily strip any zinc plating by washing the part in phosphoric acid (the primary ingredient in many wheel cleaners).

Now that's not to say that Berg never nickel plated its linkage; for all I know it could've gold plated them at one point. But I do know that nickel doesn't accept a chromate conversion. To the best of my knowledge the only color nickel can be processed into is black.

The reason Berg used (still uses?) zinc/yellow chromate is the reason I love it: it protects well when done right and it's SUPER CHEAP. When I lived behind the Orange Curtain I used to take all of my stuff to Cadillac Plating. I bet Berg did, too (it's on Struck Ave, a mile south as the crow flies from Berg's). They'd do TWO 24x24x24 boxes full of perfectly clean, freshly blasted box of steel parts for the $50 minimum (this was 10 years ago so it may cost more now). Every bracket and every part that would get chipped if painted gets zinc. I got straight silver, yellow, and blue chromate conversions done there. The company did mostly computer frames at the time but whenever I went there I saw boxes full of car and motorcycle parts.

Identical to mine that I bought in 1983 except the ends are rounded - mine are squared off.  Exact same center section and aluminum arm with the berg name in the casting.
 

I have a gold linkage similar to that as well ... it has squared linkage ends and only one stop screw. Also has gold linkage arms, for DCNFs I believe.
I'd say the gold ones are likely from the early to mid '80s ...
.02
TxT