Andover Norton

Hi everyone,

I work in Hungerford, Berkshire, and i only recently discovered andover Norton (supplier of all OE Norton commando spares) are based in Hungerford also! I ordered a head gasket from their website, gave them a call and they said it was fine to collect it from their warehouse rather than have it delivered. the guys Phil and Mick were very friendly and gave me a walk round their warehouse which is rammed with every commando spare you could want. I was not aware that you could buy direct from them, but i shall from now on, as i feel a bit unhappy with the quality of some of the parts that are out there.
it also feels good to support directly the guys that are keeping a good quality spares supply going, so if you do need any OE standard parts give them a call.

by the way, I don't actually work for them, although I am singing their praises here!

Sadly, i've been reading a lot of negative press regarding quality of some of thier spares, right here on this board...

Fact of the matter is, most of my suppliers carry thier spares.

I have NOT had any significant negative experience with Andover bits.

keithmanx said:

it also feels good to support directly the guys that are keeping a good quality spares supply going, so if you do need any OE standard parts give them a call.

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Or buy from your favourite parts supplier so everyone gets a slice of the pie and keps them in business a bit longer.
As for the quality I'll need a bit more convincing, I recently bought some new top and bottom fork yolks which came in a genuine andover bag and by new I would expect fit straight from the bag/box with no other fettling. AN obviously dont agree and leave the purchaser the job of removing all the masking tape from the bits that don't want powdercoating which of course comes of little bits at a time and then remove the rust which has formed underneath. The powdercoating left a lot to be desired being thick in places so as to cover the rough casting smoothly and thin in other places. If I had had more time and not the need they could have had the lot back.
S.

New cam followers are $PENDY!!!

Powder as a nasty habit of high and low build. scraping away excess from the stanchion bores produce's a water line.and in a few years its got in there...producing black shrink wrap

snakehips said:

keithmanx said:

it also feels good to support directly the guys that are keeping a good quality spares supply going, so if you do need any OE standard parts give them a call.

Click to expand...

Or buy from your favourite parts supplier so everyone gets a slice of the pie and keps them in business a bit longer.
As for the quality I'll need a bit more convincing, I recently bought some new top and bottom fork yolks which came in a genuine andover bag and by new I would expect fit straight from the bag/box with no other fettling. AN obviously dont agree and leave the purchaser the job of removing all the masking tape from the bits that don't want powdercoating which of course comes of little bits at a time and then remove the rust which has formed underneath. The powdercoating left a lot to be desired being thick in places so as to cover the rough casting smoothly and thin in other places. If I had had more time and not the need they could have had the lot back.
S.

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I ordered some stuff from Hungerford recently. Generally a positive experience (price, delivery to USA, communication, etc.). However, one of the items was a gearbox outer cover, and the hole for the clutch cable was undersize. Ordinarily an easy fix, but I didn't discover it until after installation and refill (grrr!). Rather than removing it and putting the shaft seals at risk, I ended up twisting drills by hand (I guess that's why they call them twist drills?) one by one from my index until getting it large enough. Used a wad of Play-Doh (pink) to catch the chips. My fingers still aren't speaking to me.

kartiste said:

I ordered some stuff from Hungerford recently. Generally a positive experience (price, delivery to USA, communication, etc.). However, one of the items was a gearbox outer cover, and the hole for the clutch cable was undersize. Ordinarily an easy fix, but I didn't discover it until after installation and refill (grrr!). Rather than removing it and putting the shaft seals at risk, I ended up twisting drills by hand (I guess that's why they call them twist drills?) one by one from my index until getting it large enough. Used a wad of Play-Doh (pink) to catch the chips. My fingers still aren't speaking to me.

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A good reminder to test fit parts before final assembly, regardless of source.

(I wish I followed my own advice all the time!)

john robert bould said:

Powder as a nasty habit of high and low build. scraping away excess from the stanchion bores produce's a water line.and in a few years its got in there...producing black shrink wrap

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Best description of powdercoat I've heard in a while

As long as you pre-mask properly, and touchup uncoated areas with Rust-O-Leum immediately, powdercoating can't be beat.

My Merc sprinter mirror arms don't agree sorry! the powder looks sh*t . I agree a good powder coat is durable...But things with bore's.threads and machine surface's well it's just a matter of time...and it's got no real shine.and it's not easy to touch up...and it's a pain to remove....and its not really for classic bikes ....wet stove!!! compare the two side by side:!:

grandpaul said:

As long as you pre-mask properly, and touchup uncoated areas with Rust-O-Leum immediately, powdercoating can't be beat.

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I use AN and have no real fitting issues with items thay have supplied, I have had problems with stuff sold by my local dealer, and yes it also comes in bag with AN label in it, but this could have been stock left over from ages ago when quality was known to be poor.
Once I had just over 200 pnematic hoses to fit to a weapon lifting system as the old ones had come to their end of life, no problem I would have them fitted in a day as they were only small - wrong, they had the wrong terminations. After much discussion with Strachan and Henshaw, their supplier had supplied to their drawing correctly, but when the first S class submarines were commissioned the same problem was found and the end fitting changed but the drawings were not due to cost - fine untill the person who made them retired, and new guy takes over and uses correct drawing. I know AN would get parts manufactured, and pretty sure they would be sample checked for dimension etc before going on the shelf.