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- Dec 8, 2011
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- 404
When routing the brake cable between the inner muffler plate and the swingarm you need to make sure that there is an extra 3/8 inch diameter washer (.071 inch thick) on each Z-plate spacer. This will splay the Z-plate outward towards the rear which would give you more space between the swingarm and the isolastic mount. The factory used the extra washers but it doesn't show in any parts book. The only reference I have seen for these washers is in the Norton Commando Service Notes published by The Norton Owners Club. As a matter of fact they used the extra washers on the right hand side Z-plate for the sake of symmetry.
Even with the extra washers on the spacers you may need to cut the isolastic mount stud shorter to get the needed clearance for the brake cable. You may even need to use a thin check nut as well. After all is said and done the brake cable still chafes on the top of the Z-plate and the cable has a tendency to rub on the passenger foot pegs bolt head.
I once tried routing the brake cable between the muffler plates and even shortened the cable to do the job. I just wasn't happy with the results. The cable would rise and bump into the passenger foot peg spacer forcing the cable in a tight radius. Then the cable itself would ride up and down along the inner muffler plate which caused a sawing action against the brake cable housing. Also the cables would jam into each isolastic mount at full up and down travel.
To solve the above mentioned problems, this is what I ended up doing. I chose to route the brake cable over the Z-plate and then between the inner muffler plate and the swingarm. Using an Andover Norton brake cable I discovered that the brake cable's ferrule nose section that plugs into the swingarm anchor is too small in diameter and too long which causes the cable not to fit squarely. I got around this by machining out an adapter for the ferrule.
Then I made a cable buffer out of stainless steel and two layers of adhesive lined shrink tubing and clamped it to the swingarm. This pushed the cable away from the Z-plate. I determined that I didn't need to clamp the cable to the swingarm because the cable move with the swingarm during its full suspension travel.
However, to make this work I needed to come up with a way of removing the passenger footpeg bolt head. I made a custom footpeg spacer that I threaded with a coarse 3/8 - 16 thread, then welded it to the inner muffler plate. I then made a stud that was coarse thread on one end and fine thread on the other end. I screwed the stud in all of the way into the spacer then installed the footpeg and noted the footpegs' position. Then I backed out the footpegs stud in small increments until the footpeg tightened down into the desired position. I also put a set screw in the spacer to lock the stud into position.
Finally I needed to make the isolastic mount as short as possible. Only the top isolastic needed to be modified, but I did both for the sake of uniformity. I did this by cutting the isolastic mount stud from 1/2 to 1/4 inch in length. I opened the mounting holes in the inner muffler plate then machined a shoulder in the mounting check nuts so that they would fit in the enlarged mounting holes and that gave me maximum clearance for the brake cable.
With my modifications, the brake cable doesn't rub on anything during its full suspension travel. I have about 4000 miles on this setup and I feel as though the brake works better because there is no tight radius in the brake cable.
Here are a couple of additional pictures of the installation:
Peter Joe
Even with the extra washers on the spacers you may need to cut the isolastic mount stud shorter to get the needed clearance for the brake cable. You may even need to use a thin check nut as well. After all is said and done the brake cable still chafes on the top of the Z-plate and the cable has a tendency to rub on the passenger foot pegs bolt head.
I once tried routing the brake cable between the muffler plates and even shortened the cable to do the job. I just wasn't happy with the results. The cable would rise and bump into the passenger foot peg spacer forcing the cable in a tight radius. Then the cable itself would ride up and down along the inner muffler plate which caused a sawing action against the brake cable housing. Also the cables would jam into each isolastic mount at full up and down travel.
To solve the above mentioned problems, this is what I ended up doing. I chose to route the brake cable over the Z-plate and then between the inner muffler plate and the swingarm. Using an Andover Norton brake cable I discovered that the brake cable's ferrule nose section that plugs into the swingarm anchor is too small in diameter and too long which causes the cable not to fit squarely. I got around this by machining out an adapter for the ferrule.
Then I made a cable buffer out of stainless steel and two layers of adhesive lined shrink tubing and clamped it to the swingarm. This pushed the cable away from the Z-plate. I determined that I didn't need to clamp the cable to the swingarm because the cable move with the swingarm during its full suspension travel.
However, to make this work I needed to come up with a way of removing the passenger footpeg bolt head. I made a custom footpeg spacer that I threaded with a coarse 3/8 - 16 thread, then welded it to the inner muffler plate. I then made a stud that was coarse thread on one end and fine thread on the other end. I screwed the stud in all of the way into the spacer then installed the footpeg and noted the footpegs' position. Then I backed out the footpegs stud in small increments until the footpeg tightened down into the desired position. I also put a set screw in the spacer to lock the stud into position.
Finally I needed to make the isolastic mount as short as possible. Only the top isolastic needed to be modified, but I did both for the sake of uniformity. I did this by cutting the isolastic mount stud from 1/2 to 1/4 inch in length. I opened the mounting holes in the inner muffler plate then machined a shoulder in the mounting check nuts so that they would fit in the enlarged mounting holes and that gave me maximum clearance for the brake cable.
With my modifications, the brake cable doesn't rub on anything during its full suspension travel. I have about 4000 miles on this setup and I feel as though the brake works better because there is no tight radius in the brake cable.
Here are a couple of additional pictures of the installation:
Peter Joe
