Clutch Adjust Spiraling Out of Control

I took apart my clutch and cleaned it because I was slipping/popping out of 1'st gear. I know. It's probably not the clutch but I did it any for both piece of mind and the experience as it's my first attempt. I followed the manual and the shop manual properly and now when I go to kick the bike over the kick level is not engaging the primary.

I proceeded to open the gearbox and now my gear lever also doesn't move through gears.

I've had the bike for a while and have always tried to do my own work. This is all clearly a learning experience for me as it's my first Norton.

Any ideas on how to reset this back to operating?

It's a 1970 commando

Many thanks in advance!

One thing at a time. GB, are you stuck in N or what. You may have to move the rear wheel around to get it to go through the gears while stationary. Is the shift pawl working or stuck somehow? If you pull off the outer cover, you can use a large screwdriver to move the quadrant up and down, again, you may have to move the rear wheel around. Inspect the pawl assemble that nothing is sticking.

Clutch, slipping could be oily plates, or not adjusted properly. Falling out of first should not be the clutch, GB problem, could be the shift fork. If you now have the plates clean, did you go through the total process of setting up the clutch actuator, rod, clutch adjuster screw, and the cable. They are all related. Do the clutch adjuster first, make sure your actuator has not fallen down, watch the diaphram as you use the clutch to make sure it's working. The adjuster screw can be critical, mine only takes about 1/8 turn loose to work properly. Some are good at 1/2 turn. You'll have to experiment with that.

Dave
69S

Yeah, buy a Norton for a pretty penny then spend lots more time and money staying ahead of the penny tarnish.

I've had similar combo of symptom occur on '72 Peel, turned out, after frustrating exploring my own learning curve, to find the nut on RH-shifter side end of main shaft had backed off so main shaft shifted to take up all the motion in clutch pack spring tension. This fixed the clutch symptoms but didn't fix the worn bushes, especially the almost paper thin on on 1st gear, so was too soon back climbing my steepening learning curve, that there ain't no short cuts worth doing on a Cdo. in for a penny down for pounds and pounds.

I now think that day light + human observation on the pawl spring starts or accelerates a cascade of quantum molecular rearrangements that cause it to loose its slick operating function. Handling it or removing it is not required to upset it : (

Lesion = get another spare now so less time wasted next time inside the gear box.

DogT said:

One thing at a time. GB, are you stuck in N or what. You may have to move the rear wheel around to get it to go through the gears while stationary. Is the shift pawl working or stuck somehow? If you pull off the outer cover, you can use a large screwdriver to move the quadrant up and down, again, you may have to move the rear wheel around. Inspect the pawl assemble that nothing is sticking.

Clutch, slipping could be oily plates, or not adjusted properly. Falling out of first should not be the clutch, GB problem, could be the shift fork. If you now have the plates clean, did you go through the total process of setting up the clutch actuator, rod, clutch adjuster screw, and the cable. They are all related. Do the clutch adjuster first, make sure your actuator has not fallen down, watch the diaphram as you use the clutch to make sure it's working. The adjuster screw can be critical, mine only takes about 1/8 turn loose to work properly. Some are good at 1/2 turn. You'll have to experiment with that.

Dave
69S

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Thanks for the heads up Dave. I have to say I'm pretty confused. I've done this process three times and I'm pretty sure I'm not missing anything. I'll try and dial the clutch in again.

Now as for the kick lever and the gear shift lever. I'm pretty confused about where to start on that. All that I had done was take off the kick lever and the gear shift lever in order to take off the gearbox cover. I'll spin the wheel around but I'm not sure where to go after that. Any thoughts on how to get this thing operational? I was expecting just to do a quick cleaning of the plates and now I'm not riding. ugh.

Not to state the obvious, but are you getting the ratchet plate dog (on item 3) into the operating quadrant roller (item 5) when installing outer cover? Sometimes it can be a bear getting it together correctly. Actually, with the outer GB cover off, you should be able to take a screwdriver and shift through the gears by pushing the operating quadrant up and down. Like I say, you will have to play with the rear wheel, move it back and forth while trying to shift or it may not shift at all. If it still won't shift at all, it's most likely time to take off the inner cover to see what's going on.

http://www.oldbritts.com/1971_g6.html

Re: the clutch, are you sure you got everything back in in proper order? Is the inner plate engaged with the roll pins in the clutch basket? No reason it shouldn't work if it worked before and you didn't change any parts. Can you feel the diaphragm breaking over when you pull the clutch? Can you see the diaphragm moving in and out with the clutch lever? Is the actuator arm pushing the operating rod? You can see the diaphragm move through the inspection cover. Can you push the kick start lever through with no resistance when you are pulling the clutch in?

Don't get discouraged, just think of all the good things you are learning for when something happens again. Do you have a local Norton owner that can help? Must be one nearby somewhere.

Dave
69S