advice on wheel rebuild

Just getting ready to place an order with old brits, anyone have any advice on what should be replaced in the wheels other than the bearings? The bike is a 73 750 that has sat in a garage since the early 90's and i have pretty much no idea what has ever been done/replaced on it. Not looking for a show bike or full resto, just looking to get it into a safe reliable (as reliable as anything british with a motor gets) rider. never worked on a motorcycle before so don't know if things like the spacers need/should be replaced. Thanks in advance

Check the condition of any spacers, felt washers and caps. The bearing surface of the axle is important also. Keep it clean and be sure to coat the axle with grease (lightly, but completely) before sliding it through.

Make sure if you are getting the wheels relaced with new spokes, that the individual is familiar with norton front disc commandos.
There are some untypical offsets, especially the front wheel. I found this out the hard way.
Don't just take it to any joe that relaces wheels, or you may get home to find the front wheel out by 3/4"........ yes I said 3/4" :roll:

If you do relace and your wheel guy needs some Beta on relacing a commando front disc wheel, Old Britts site has some good Beta on its site for lacing these wheels. 8)

pvisseriii said:

Check the condition of any spacers, felt washers and caps. The bearing surface of the axle is important also. Keep it clean and be sure to coat the axle with grease (lightly, but completely) before sliding it through.

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Just any grade of axle grease?

staticmoves said:

pvisseriii said:

Check the condition of any spacers, felt washers and caps. The bearing surface of the axle is important also. Keep it clean and be sure to coat the axle with grease (lightly, but completely) before sliding it through.

Click to expand...

Just any grade of axle grease?

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I like the red stuff or what ever you pack your bearings with. No big whoop, just as long as you do it.

Probably any grease labeled for bearings will be fine. But multi-purpose grease may not hold up well since it is basically oil suspended in soap. I tend to buy the stuff labeled for marine use since I know it will resist water and that trailer bearings are typically subjected to high loads.

There is a lot of information here:

http://www.lubsys.com/knowledge/knw_lubric04.htm

Russ

I recommend that you replace the bearings with sealed ones, the felt and steel washers are to keep dirt out and grease in to the original unsealed bearings, so they can be simply cleaned an put back in the same order.

As stated any old grease will work, standard or marine, though I like boat trail grade best having seen sea water trailers w/o enough in there hubs. The main issue of grease is not to mix-match the brands-type as the oil suspending ingredients can separate or turn more to caked soap that lube. Be aware power washers tend to get water in there. Sealed bearing is better way to go. The hubs and brake relation is totally determined by the spacers and assemblly order and they don't wear out but maybe for the thin rear speedo drive top hat spacer. Helps to lace rims on the bike to center rim to the frame other wise lacer must go by guess and by golly on offset measures. Rear wheels from factory tend to be offset 3/8" to the LH which is a non issue in handling or feel, but looks better viewed when rim is centered on spine with fender and tag is all. Realize after market alloy rims and maybe chrome too are not drilled at the extreme angles Norton disc brake needs so tends to leave front spokes in a bent bind. I though it was just me at first till pestering many experts who did them to be told the above and not to worry one whitworth as its a non issue to safety or function.

what is the point of relacing the wheels? like i said i'm new to motorcycles, are the spokes considered wear items?

kevbo82 said:

what is the point of relacing the wheels? like i said i'm new to motorcycles, are the spokes considered wear items?

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No. I am sure it was just a question as to what you were doing. Rebuild the wheel and relacing the rim is 2 different topics. The person probably respoked his/her rim when it was rebuilt. Not an issue, don't worry about it.

kevbo82 said:

what is the point of relacing the wheels? like i said i'm new to motorcycles, are the spokes considered wear items?

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you would want to do this if the wheels need to be trued and the currents spokes and nipples are unsurviceable due to rust or damage.
or just if you want to have shiney wheels. 8)

The real issue is will the ancient factory spokes and nipple survive a loosening or tightening to true up - better. Norton issue is up to lifetimes of endurance but for finish appearance. Its common for rust to about fuse threads over the decades. I was able to turn some of my '72's spokes to take up slack and help true better but not nearly all of them w/o first taking off tire and applying a torch and penetrate oil to them before chance they'd screw more than screw up. I find a tiny adjustable wrench works best, if tightened each new bite on each flat of nipples. If ya do strip a spoke or twist one to death, no worrys mate if just one or two. Btw I've also found polished over shiny rust looks better than attemping to paint rusty spoke and buffing. What I have had success with, to me, was finding every nipple on disc side of rim to be heat rusted and stained, so paint did look better and noticed at all till sticking ya nose too close to others bodges.

You do need to inspect the wheels for any loose spokes and tighten any loose ones. Be careful not to over tighten because you can pull the rim out of true. Check where the spokes cross each other. They tend to wear on each other at the cross points although they typically break at the bend at the hub. This work is best done when changing tires or you have real problems with your spokes or have hit a curb but it should be looked at on a new bike.

Here is a photo that shows the offset on a disc brake front wheel. (The disc is off)

1. Old Brits sealed wheel bearings

2. Send wheels to Buchanan's for lacing, whether you buy new rims and/or spokes, they DO IT RIGHT. Unless you have a one-off or custom setup, they KNOW the offset & pattern for every Norton.

Humm you did say rebuild the "wheel" that means spokes and rims, rebuild the "hubs" is wheel bearings and components on or about the axle.

No one has bothered to mention that in the rear hub/brake area there is a spacer that is soft as mush and should be kept track of. If the steel yields from pressure of being worked against the bearing it can cause problems by loosening, eventually causing a broken axle. Several years ago I went looking for genuine factory hardened spacers and ordered some from a genuine norton dealer and got "real" norton parts in a norton bag. After a harness test I discovered the rumored hardened spacers were no better than the old ones. I ended up making my own...hardening and testing them. The norton ones were returned for refund.