"Different design than what I think I'm seeing here."

Agreed! 

This has a shouldered bolt and the bushing is not threaded. The bushing is also slightly taller than the lever, so I can cinch the bolt down. Ever since I've been fixing it up I've noticed the clutch ever was floppy/loose, but I never checked it. The brake lever has a little bit of play in it, but not nearly as much as the clutch. I just thought it was normal free play.  I've put over a thousand miles on it with it like this. I'm not sure if the lever I ordered is designed to be used with a bushing, but I can drill it out if not.

By the way it looks like this cracked from being hyperextended the wrong way. I think I could still ride it for a while, because the left side which  bears the weight is intact. I'm not going to ride very far though, in case I have to walk her home.

 


 

Just for fun I cleaned the lever in an ultrasonic cleaner, then heated it some and tried to bend things back more where they belonged, as much as I could. Knowing that if I went too far I might break something. Then I tried some liquid metal filler, which I absolutely know will not stand up to stress, but I just wanted to smooth things out. As I said before, the load-bearing portion of this is still intact, so I think I can ride it a few more days until the new lever gets here on Wednesday. There's a vintage bike meet Sunday that I want to go to, that's only about 4 miles away.

 I put some white grease on it and installed it, and went for about a 5-mile ride. Checked it when I got back and everything stayed where it belonged.

 

Nice job!

I suspect that break you had came from some sort of odd impact sometime during the life of the bike... hopefully you'll be fine.

Thanks, yeah I'm sure it either banged into something or was laid down. In fact it could have been like that from the very beginning. It could have been banged anywhere. This bike only had 320 miles on it when I dug into it, and this one had never been ridden in the dirt. It was a replacement for a my old CT-1 that was stolen back in the early '70s. My dad kept this one, and I took his which had some minor damage from offroad. He only rode it a few times on the street. I did check the brake lever and it's absolutely fine. Since I fixed it the clutch lever isn't quite as floppy either, probably because the bushing is a little more secure.

Almost looks like maybe bike was rolling backwards and lever caught on something?

Agreed, it does look like it just got caught when it was rolling backwards at some time. May have even happened when it was being delivered. Without that brass bushing, it probably would have been much more noticeable.

Hey Mark, after lurking this board for a while, i just wanna say thanks for your expertise and willingness to share that knowledge with us. I've learned more about these bikes in the past 3 months through your answers than i have the previous 30 years of attempting to figure out shit on my own.

+ 1 I agree MarkT is the technical guru. 

I received the new clutch lever (linked earlier in this thread) today, and it's almost an exact replacement. It does not use the bushing, but it'll be fine. The opening is a bit smaller, about 7.8 mm ID, while the bushing on the old one is 8.3 mm ID. For now I put a flat and lock washer underneath, but I'll pick up a lock nut with nylon insert next time I'm in the hardware store. Without the bushing I can't cinch this down too tight or it could pinch the lever, or even break the perch.