Bushman's engine repair thread

[worntorn]

It was here and now it's gone.
Jim Bush is a well respected fellow in the motorcycling community. He's pretty good at sorting out mechanical problems.
This would be helpful to other owners of 961 s.


Glen

 

[BritTwit]

I noticed that all postings on the 961 forum from yesterday (Tuesday 11/28) are gone.

 

[worntorn]

Just glancing at the thread " Shorta an Importa" , it shows several posts from yesterday.
I haven't looked at the others. I think Bushman's is the only one in which the entire thread has disappeared.
And the info contained within was pretty important stuff, not the usual " What mufflers have you ordered" kind of stuff.

Glen

 

[Fast Eddie]

Wow. This was a very interesting thread.

What’s going on ??

 

[bushman]

Sorry folks, I deleted the thread at this point, as I wish to let Norton come back with a statement about what they know about this issue and what has been done in production. At this point mine appears to be a one off and I do not wish to create an unnecessary maelstrom of concern for owners. I have written directly to Norton UK and I will certainly be happy to report the outcome in due course.

 

[BritTwit]

Jim,

Taking the high road.
That's very courteous of you.
I hope Norton appreciate your consideration, and owner's concerns.

Cheers.

 

[MxMartin]

You believe your problem to be a one-off which is understandable.... but getting a glimpse of the internal workings was pretty cool and (hopefully) something that not too many of us will get to experience for real!

 

[Fast Eddie]

Your thread need not be a rant against Norton! As a thread about an engine rebuild it was great.

Please re consider and re post your pics and explanations about what you are doing for us petrol heads to enjoy !

 

[richard-7]

Your thread need not be a rant against Norton! As a thread about an engine rebuild it was great.

Please re consider and re post your pics and explanations about what you are doing for us petrol heads to enjoy !

Loads of info and pics in my manuals.
Cheers!

 

[BPHORSEGUY]

The problem is if the thread goes forward there will always be the negative comments which have already started. I mean things like cranks leave the Norton factory with .017 runout. Ridiculous!

 

[richard-7]

I know for a fact Norton wants to be around for a while and on this forum its proven they often take care of out of warranty issues. Ive posted tons of issues that i feel needed to be shared. And privately Ive shared with Norton a fair share of issues that could improve overall quality. This one i think Jim did the right thing. Lets give Norton a chance privately to addess and then Jim can decide weather ir not it needs to be shared with all of the public. We all want the facts but we also don’t want to be ripping out engines apart for nothing. Or Norton taking heat for an isolated issue. Perhaps they have a date range that is creeping up its ugly head and they can take care of it. Or maybe its a one off. Or maybe we’re all fucked.

I appreciate Jim sharing and deleting that post. Lets delete this thread too. And patently wait....

 

[worntorn]

The problem is if the thread goes forward there will always be the negative comments which have already started. I mean things like cranks leave the Norton factory with .017 runout. Ridiculous!

I didn't see that comment made in that thread.

 

[Fast Eddie]

It was not said Glen, at least to the best of my recollection.

But it my have been interpreted that way by some, and perhaps that's the point here regarding the thread deletion, interpretation and misinterpretation, and subsequent 'Chinese whispers' etc.

 

[nopdog]

Yes I would have liked to read that thread before it was deleted.
I've got a huge rant.
Awesome bike. Quality control, nonexistent, absolute crap.
We should all get together and sue the crap out of them.
In Australia Frazers Motorcycles were the importers. Not any more. What a bunch of cu.ts
Warranty forget it. Do the work yourself or take the bike to a qualified top notch mechanic. It's a basic engine with problems.
Warranty work is nothing more than putting a band aide on a gushing artery wound.
My bikes a 2014 (purchased 2nd hand june 2017 with 1600km on clock) (Frazers said "yes its all sorted, all the upgrades bull shit bull shit etc), bikes turns out to have a huge oil/airbox problem.
Of course frazers/Norton denies that there is a problem.
200ml of oil after every 100km ride is normal, (give me a fucking break and stop treating the general public like idiots)
So with with countless fucking hours, top end strip down I finally realized that some numnut has installed the oil/air separator upside fucking down.
Don't anyone dare say (its great you've found the problem) it's not my job to fix the problem.
The whole breathing system is strait out of the 1960s and it wasn't up to scratch back then.
Don't mind me I feel better now.
I'll take it out for another spin tomorrow and hopefully the oil is still only a few drops.

Simon

 

[Fast Eddie]

Simon, I feel for your frustration sir.

However, I respectfully suggest that your points would have been better raised in a separate thread.

What you have done here is prove Bushman right in deleting his thread as it would have just become a ‘bandwagon’ for people to jump on.

 

[nopdog]

Yes, sorry about that, too many beers! Poor excuse I know but what can I say. Love the bike, hate corporate entities that deny problems until their noses are rubbed in it. I should delete but will leave as it dose have some valid points.

 

[BPHORSEGUY]

So with with countless fucking hours, top end strip down I finally realized that some numnut has installed the oil/air separator upside fucking down!

Simon

Maybe you have discovered why some bikes like mine leave a few drops on the garage floor while others dribble constantly?

 

[lcrken]

Not wanting to stir things up any more than already, but I do have one question for Jim. Did you get any error codes about the crankshaft position sensor before the disaster? I'm only asking because my 2014 is giving me OBD error codes saying crankshaft sensor malfunction, even though the bike runs well (as soon as it gets warmed up,that is).

Ken

 

[comet]

Following the first issue with my 961, which occurred a couple of weeks after delivery, I received a phone call from the factory asking me not to share the information on the forums. The issue could have caused personal injury, and damage to the bike, and I was fortunate that neither happened. I haven’t seen any other reports of the same issue so perhaps it was a one-off, but if the information was not being shared how would I know?

In its relatively short life my bike has spent months back at the factory for various issues, some which incapacitated it and some less serious. Invariably it gets laid up during the best riding weather which is when the issues manifest themselves. Is a blown head gasket at 1300 miles as a result of the liners dropping in the cylinders, another one-off?

I would prefer to see the full picture and make up my own mind about how it may or may not relate to my bike. With a number of bikes to ride, a 2-year warranty isn’t very long as I don’t clock up much mileage in that time. At my age (pensioner) I want a bike I can ride and I no longer have the physical ability or the tools and technical skills (never did have those) to do some of the work that might be required to keep the bike running. I empathise with Simon’s (nopdog) comments as I didn’t buy the bike to do work on anyway.

I stopped referring to the UK NOC forum as there was too much negativity and most of it seemed to come from people who didn’t even own a 961. It didn’t stop me from buying one. The information from people like Richard-7 on this forum is invaluable and Richard even intervened on my behalf with the factory, recommending a fix for an ongoing running problem which the factory had attempted to fix on a number of previous occasions. Unfortunately Richard, they ignored your advice and I got the bike back after another couple of weeks, supposedly fixed, but with exactly the same problem.

When I found this forum it was a breath of fresh air but I’m worried that it’s starting to drift in the other direction.

 

[richard-7]

Following the first issue with my 961, which occurred a couple of weeks after delivery, I received a phone call from the factory asking me not to share the information on the forums. The issue could have caused personal injury, and damage to the bike, and I was fortunate that neither happened. I haven’t seen any other reports of the same issue so perhaps it was a one-off, but if the information was not being shared how would I know?

In its relatively short life my bike has spent months back at the factory for various issues, some which incapacitated it and some less serious. Invariably it gets laid up during the best riding weather which is when the issues manifest themselves. Is a blown head gasket at 1300 miles as a result of the liners dropping in the cylinders, another one-off?

I would prefer to see the full picture and make up my own mind about how it may or may not relate to my bike. With a number of bikes to ride, a 2-year warranty isn’t very long as I don’t clock up much mileage in that time. At my age (pensioner) I want a bike I can ride and I no longer have the physical ability or the tools and technical skills (never did have those) to do some of the work that might be required to keep the bike running. I empathise with Simon’s (nopdog) comments as I didn’t buy the bike to do work on anyway.

I stopped referring to the UK NOC forum as there was too much negativity and most of it seemed to come from people who didn’t even own a 961. It didn’t stop me from buying one. The information from people like Richard-7 on this forum is invaluable and Richard even intervened on my behalf with the factory, recommending a fix for an ongoing running problem which the factory had attempted to fix on a number of previous occasions. Unfortunately Richard, they ignored your advice and I got the bike back after another couple of weeks, supposedly fixed, but with exactly the same problem.

When I found this forum it was a breath of fresh air but I’m worried that it’s starting to drift in the other direction.

Thats super unfortunate. “You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him take a drink”.