- Joined
- Jan 14, 2004
- Messages
- 2,446
I don't know if everyone on this forum knows about Dynodave's super cool, handy dandy clutch rod seal.
When I was bombing around 30 yrs ago with my Dunstall piped 850, along with tightening the headers every hundred miles or so, I had to disassemble the primary, clean and sand the gunk off the clutch plates somewhere around 200mi. Then pretty soon the clutch would start slipping at WOT and draggin at the lights and I'd do it all over again. I tried every combination of oil, ATF, non detergent everything. No one had an answer other than replace it with Barnett plates. I couldn't understand this because these 'bronze' plates were supposed to be state of the art.
The bike was eventually sold.
I got back into Norton's in the middle 90's and happened upon Dynodave on another forum.
He discovered the tranny oil/grease would siphen through the mainshaft via the clutch rod and contaminate the plates. Brilliant!
I made it even worse by storing my 'Dumbstall' piped bike on it's side stand. The grease just rolls unto the plates, besides dripping all over the floor. (yes I used to overfill my tranny, because I was sooo smart)
Anyway, you can check out his seals at www.gis.net/~dynodave or www.britiron.com (formerly nortons.com)
The other problem I had was smoking on start up. I had bought the bike new. (My first new anything, 400 dn, 86 per mo.) It started smoking on start up somewhere around 10,000 mi. Because I was soooo smart, I assumed it was valve seals. I did a complete valve job and rings while I was at it. Didn't solve a thing, still smoked. I figured I had done something wrong. Now understand in the middle 70's there were not alot of places to go to talk Norton. I had to go to a Triumph dealership to buy parts, they didn't want me anymore than I wanted them. It was a miserable time.
So in 1978, I had a bike that hauled a#%, had to tighten the pipes every 100mi., do the clutch thing every 200mi, dripped oil, smoked on start up, NO dealer support and it didn't look like it was getting any better.
Ride on the weekend, work on it all week. This got old.
So I sold it as part of a down payment on my first house. When I saw it going away, I was happy to see it go but was wondering if I would ever regret it. The bike gave me so much joy, yet so much grief.
I see now the problems were owner ignorance.
Smoking on start up is from wet sumping. Normal
Clutch slippage / dragging is from tranny contamination further induced from side stand storage.
Overfilling the tranny, bike on side stand = oil on floor.
'Dumbstall' pipes are more trouble than their worth.
Had I been able to solve these solvable problems, I probably never would have sold it.
I am gone for the weekend, everyone have a nice "T" day.
When I was bombing around 30 yrs ago with my Dunstall piped 850, along with tightening the headers every hundred miles or so, I had to disassemble the primary, clean and sand the gunk off the clutch plates somewhere around 200mi. Then pretty soon the clutch would start slipping at WOT and draggin at the lights and I'd do it all over again. I tried every combination of oil, ATF, non detergent everything. No one had an answer other than replace it with Barnett plates. I couldn't understand this because these 'bronze' plates were supposed to be state of the art.
The bike was eventually sold.
I got back into Norton's in the middle 90's and happened upon Dynodave on another forum.
He discovered the tranny oil/grease would siphen through the mainshaft via the clutch rod and contaminate the plates. Brilliant!
I made it even worse by storing my 'Dumbstall' piped bike on it's side stand. The grease just rolls unto the plates, besides dripping all over the floor. (yes I used to overfill my tranny, because I was sooo smart)
Anyway, you can check out his seals at www.gis.net/~dynodave or www.britiron.com (formerly nortons.com)
The other problem I had was smoking on start up. I had bought the bike new. (My first new anything, 400 dn, 86 per mo.) It started smoking on start up somewhere around 10,000 mi. Because I was soooo smart, I assumed it was valve seals. I did a complete valve job and rings while I was at it. Didn't solve a thing, still smoked. I figured I had done something wrong. Now understand in the middle 70's there were not alot of places to go to talk Norton. I had to go to a Triumph dealership to buy parts, they didn't want me anymore than I wanted them. It was a miserable time.
So in 1978, I had a bike that hauled a#%, had to tighten the pipes every 100mi., do the clutch thing every 200mi, dripped oil, smoked on start up, NO dealer support and it didn't look like it was getting any better.
Ride on the weekend, work on it all week. This got old.
So I sold it as part of a down payment on my first house. When I saw it going away, I was happy to see it go but was wondering if I would ever regret it. The bike gave me so much joy, yet so much grief.
I see now the problems were owner ignorance.
Smoking on start up is from wet sumping. Normal
Clutch slippage / dragging is from tranny contamination further induced from side stand storage.
Overfilling the tranny, bike on side stand = oil on floor.
'Dumbstall' pipes are more trouble than their worth.
Had I been able to solve these solvable problems, I probably never would have sold it.
I am gone for the weekend, everyone have a nice "T" day.