baz
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- May 26, 2010
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whats the history of the modified norton follower in this picture? i have one single one in my collection and i wondered who did this mod?One problem with Norton lifters is their excessive mass.
Every time the lifter is accelerated from a dead stop to full lift – the resistant forces of inertia put strain on the hard pad and try to wipe it off the lifter body. The heavier the lifter – the more the strain – and it adds up over time. Triumphs and BSA lifters don’t have as high a failure rate of lifter pads as Nortons do because they only weigh about ½ as much as Norton lifters and so the strain/wear is reduced. Norton could easily have incorporated a lighter lifter ... they didn’t. But some of the high RPM Norton flat track tuners switched to BSA lifters.
Lightened BSA lifter below. BSA lifters were preferred over Triumphs because the BSA stems are stronger.
Lightening a Norton lifter has been done but its difficult. Here is what I used to do to stock lifters to help drain the oil in and above the lifter to reduce weight. Credit to Mic Ofield