I noticed that the rod caps I removed had the bearing shell indents opposite one another. This is backwards from the way the workshop manual shows them in figure C34 section C. I wonder if there is damage to something due to this. Havent noticed any. Journals measure 1.7495 --- that's still good for standard size bearing shells isn't it? Found no metal rouge in the case bottom sludge. First time I've been in one of these. The hefty size of the rods surprized me.

I've torn down many more Fords and Detroits than Nortons but that something you find now and again. The caps should be properly installed and honed to size while torqued. Then some idiot puts them together backwards. If it did not cause marks on the bearings you should be OK.

Nope, all looks good . squeezed up one with some plastigauge and got about .0036 and the crank journal is 1.7495 Wouldn't you think I could go back with standard bearing shells? There is no journal variance greater than .0005 at the most.