'74 850 - Update:

gtsun said:

Wow all condolancese sent after seeing that crack in your case. Right through the #'s too like adding insult to injury. Congrads on having the go-nada to rise above it!! Keep on tract it's looking good.

Click to expand...

Thanks - The cracked cases really took the wind out of my sails when I discovered them originally. I hated the thought of losing those #'s, but in the end I decided the project was about resurrecting my dad's bike and not about having a #'s matching Commando.

I had to rebuild my motor because of crackes in my cases, mine where around the crank seal, at first I got the crackes welded up this was about 8 years ago, it was pretty hard to weld there as the case around the seal is not very thick and there was so much oil coming out of the poras of the alloy when welding, the welding was done by a very skilled trades man and good friend, I was his T/A for over 13 years, but after rebuilding the motor when I fired it up for the first time it was still leaking, was so frustrating after all the time we spent welding and machining the case to find it still leaked, the Norton sat for a few years out of frustration, but while it sat I chased up a set of good cases and a lot more performance parts for the motor.

After a few years and when I had the urge to work on it again it didn't take that long to rebuild, the new second hand cases have sealed up well and don't leak a drop of oil, it fired up first kick and has been back on the road now for 18 months now, I ride it 6 days out of 7, I am glad its back on the road but should have not let it sit for the time it did because of frustration over the ordeal, but I did have another bike when it was off the road which helped, I have owned my Norton since new so it means a lot to me, as for the orginal numbers who cares as I know inside the new cases it still has most of the orginal parts and what caused the cracks, young and silly and too many burn outs, but now older and wiser but still young and silly in the mind :lol:

Ashley

XXXXXX

I did one that was about in the same condition 15 years ago. I had T.C. re-do the top end. The pistons and bores were OK. New rings and hone. Valve job. Resurfaced rockers and followers. Rebuilt Isolastics. New 34mm Mikunis (later switched to single). Boyer. Dyna coil. Cleaned out sludge trap. New hoses. Powdercoated frame. New aluminum rims. (18 & 19). New SS spokes and nipples. Rebuilt master cylinders and calipers. Drilled discs. Repainted tank and sidecovers. New handlebars. Repro seat. New fork tubes from Frank's. New exhaust. New shocks.
Two years.
$7,000.00
I took it off of the rack, drove it 100 miles to break in the rings, and the next day rode 700 miles to the Vintage days in Ohio. Got back from there, changed oil and rode it to the west coast and back.
I rode it for several years and sold it for $4,800.00. My knees prevented me from starting it.

I also took one like that and built it into a flattracker that was featured in a story and on the cover of the INOA newsletter. FYI, when we took that one apart the cam was siezed into the bushing in the left engine case and the bushing had been spinning in the case. If we woild have run that engine we would have had a catostrophic failure.







Have fun.