Hello fellow Norton Enthusiasts,
Dave, whose moniker in this august forum is Cash, informed me of a fatal flaw in my most elegant apparatus designed in the service of balancing my wayward Amal carburetors. He pointed out that the counterbores into which the throttle slides settle, in the absence of stop screws, are found to vary in their respective depths.
Thus I was measuring a difference of movement from two different beginning apertures. I proceeded to locate a pair of drill bits of an appropriate diameter, and soon found that there was a good .020" difference between the throttle slides, relative to the bottom of the bore, which is truly the important quantity at issue here. Sadly, my apparatus can only be used effectively to verify what feeler gauge technique has already revealed, and with carburetors mounted on the engine, I do not see a way to overcome this limitation.
However, all is not lost. Dial indicators are a valuable tool in the setup of my Trident clutch mechanism and the hard won experience of setting Norton carburetion has prepared me for my encounter with T150 carburetion , whose three carburetors and gantry mechanism at this very moment await me on my bench.
Now, it is a fact that this winter I plan to renew the bushings and bearings in the MKIII gearbox--but I could not bear the thought of not having a single working British motorcycle on the premises. Thus I came up with the idea that I needed a simple and reliable bike to tide me over whilst repairs proceeded on the Commando.
Obviously the only sensible solution was to obtain a 1973 Triumph Trident. I was so bold as to buy a bike from Prescott Arizona, and have some nice people with a truck deliver said machinery here in Vancouver Wa. The bike and I had never met before. Now, the bike looks to be in showroom condition, and the P.O. claimed that the motorcycle ran perfectly . While I believe this statement was offered in good faith, it had overoptimistic elements contained within its scope.
The clutch needs some fine tuning, and appropriate renewal parts are en route from Athens, Greece. It turns out that Tridents are all the rage in Athens. And carburetor renewal parts are in the process of being installed this very day. The third issue is to find a way to stop the three cylinder monster from kicking back during the starting procedure. I have a bruise the size of a coffee saucer on the side of my knee. I am only flesh and bone, and the bike is made of steel . I suspect I may be dumping the Boyer unit in favor of a Trispark soon-- if kicking behavior does not improve.
However, after obtaining appropriate ear plugs I took some rides on the Trident-- before removing its carburetors of course. It is a very different kind of creature relative to the Commando. It is a trippy machine. Many times I have gotten down behind 500ug of high quality LSD , and I can say that riding the Trident is its mechanical equivalent .
Sincerely,
Kara Elizabeth.