CNW Hydraulic clutch

Guys, just spent a frustrating day trying to fit my new CNW hydraulic clutch. Everything fitted as per the instruction sheets, went smooth as silk. That is till I tried to fit female fitting on the braided hydraulic line to the 3AN male fitting protruding from the tranny cover. GGRRRRR!!!! The braided line can not be fitted to the tranny fitting, regardless where the tranny is adjusted to. The reinforced section behind the female swivel fitting is too long and the line strikes the top iso tube. I even adjusted the tranny as far forward as it could go just to see if the line could be fitted, but it cant be, the iso mount tube still interferes with it. You can just get the fittings done up but there is a troubling bend in the line and adjusting the tranny is out of the question.
In my case I have ordered a male/female 45 deg adaptor fitting from earl's supplier here in Australia but it cost me $40 inc shipping.
Pissed off? You bet. Just be aware these are not just a bolt up proporsition. (in some cases there may be some fettling)
:cry: ( Not pissed at MATT or CNW, pissed that things didnt go the way I wanted)
JUG

What does CNW have to say about the nonfit? Doesn't appear to be an insurmountable problem with the proper fittings.

I installed one of CNW's first on my MK III with a slight fitment issue inside the transmission case, but Matt and Jim got right on this and helped me solve the issue withing 4 days. Routing is important, but the excellent pictures you supplied showed your problem as a dead end without additional fittings. I suggest that you call MAtt at CNW, he needs to hear about this and his Customer Service posture is as good as it gets.

RS

It would appear that you have an earlier trans cover, probably from an Atlas on your Commando. The Commando cover points the fitting just forward of the isolastic tube and doesn't cause interferance but the cover from a vertical engine models have the cable hole located farther to the rear. Jim

Darren,

Sent an e-mail to you this morning in regards to your problem. Just wanted to post a reply here as well. We have not seen this issue before on any of the many kits that has been installed. Its especially strange since you say that it doesnt fit with the tranny all the way forward in the adjustment slot. I have seen tight fits when its towards the back but not any cases when it didnt fit. Your cover appears to be a Commando cover as that was the first thing I looked for as well.

Nevertheless you have a problem, that is clear, and we'll take care of it best we can considering you have gone through some frustrating time already. Specifically what we will do for you is mentioned in your e-mail this morning. Hope this helps a little bit.

Then we will of course see to that this doesnt happen again. I will source a 45 or 30 degree fitting and include it in the kit for those that have a tight fit in that area.

I think you all know that we are really trying to offer some product that works and unfortunately sometimes issues sneak up and bite you in the butt. Rest assured that we will always react to feedback....Positive and Negative and correct the things we need to in order to make it right. Bottom line is that we want you to know that you are dealing with a company that stands behind the product we offer 100%.

Thanks

Matt

comnoz said:

It would appear that you have an earlier trans cover, probably from an Atlas on your Commando.

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Very interesting observation -- Good put.

jughead said:

In my case I have ordered a male/female 45 deg adaptor fitting from earl's supplier here in Australia but it cost me $40 inc shipping.
Pissed off? You bet. Just be aware these are not just a bolt up proporsition. :cry:
JUG

Click to expand...

Pissed off? You have no right to get pissed off until you have contacted the vendor (CNW) directly. Certainly posting on this forum won't get you much sympathy as everyone here knows that Matt and Jim are top notch and will do anything possible to rectify the situation.

The fact that you went and bought a fitting tells me that you a) didn't contact CNW about the problem and b) you might suspect that the problems is that you may have an incorrect gearbox cover and that it's your problem, not theirs.

Just saying.

Matt, you may want to confirm that very early Commandos didn't use the Atlas cover, if that's possible.

Matt,

Thanks for looking over us. Great customer service. The old adage, "You get what you pay for", certainly holds true with CNW.

Talked to Jim about the problem and as is often the case, consistency is not something Norton is famous for. Just between the bikes Jim an I have in our shops currently there is no question that there are some different covers available. Neither one of us has experienced a problem until now. Of course that does not mean that that the issue doesnt exsits.

I have a 1970 'S' in the shop that is in fact using an Atlas cover. This most likely due to the unique center mounted oil tank. The early cover allows the clutch cable to exit behing the ISO tube instead of in front of it. There is however a lot of room in there so the straight hydraulic line would work in that case as well.

Making parts fit all the different machines and years sometimes gets a little tricky. Now it becomes obvious that we have to offer some different fittings to ensue we can make the kit work for some off the odd covers that may be on certain bikes. Taking care of the problem in this case will be pretty straight forward with a few different fitting available. We never want to customers bikes to be the 'test bed' for parts, but sometimes it happens.

The fact is that the Hydraulic clutch that Jim developed is in my opinion one of the best modifications that has ever been developed for a Commando. It really transforms the operation and the feedback so far has been very positive (well, until today that is). I know many people are happy with the cable operated version but thats because that is what they are used to. We were all ok getting off the couch to change the TV station....until we got our hands on a remote control. Try living without your remote control for a couple of weeks !!

It really doesnt matter what is right or wrong, hard to pinpoint when it comes to Commandos, but we just need to figure out how to make it fit and work. Make our customers happy. And we will.

Just another day in the shop.

Matt

swooshdave said:

jughead said:

In my case I have ordered a male/female 45 deg adaptor fitting from earl's supplier here in Australia but it cost me $40 inc shipping.
Pissed off? You bet. Just be aware these are not just a bolt up proporsition. :cry:
JUG

Click to expand...

Pissed off? You have no right to get pissed off until you have contacted the vendor (CNW) directly. Certainly posting on this forum won't get you much sympathy as everyone here knows that Matt and Jim are top notch and will do anything possible to rectify the situation.

The fact that you went and bought a fitting tells me that you a) didn't contact CNW about the problem and b) you might suspect that the problems is that you may have an incorrect gearbox cover and that it's your problem, not theirs.

Just saying.

Matt, you may want to confirm that very early Commandos didn't use the Atlas cover, if that's possible.

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Being located 1/2 way around the world I can understand jughead's instinct to seek out a solution within his borders. I've shipped to Australia before, it ain't cheap or fast.

Guys, you may have missunderstood ,I aint pissed off at MATT or CNW I was pissed off at my bike being off the road for an extended period, and the disapointment of it not working. If I have given the wrong impression regarding Matt or his staff I apologise. I have had nothing but good experiences dealing with him and his company.
BTW Matt contacted me this morning and is going to pay for the adapter fitting. Great Guy, but not nessesary.
I only wanted to bring to your attention that there may be fitting issues with these, as is my case. I have been working with Nortons long enough to know that there are variables you must take into account.
JUG

Can't blame a guy for trying to solve it.
E-mails cost nothing.
I would think he would at least make a contact before making a post like this.
However it did bring to light a problem and obviuosly Matt is taking care of it in his usual high class manner.

8) 8) 8) 8)

jughead said:

Guys, you may have missunderstood ,I aint pissed off at MATT or CNW I was pissed off at my bike being off the road for an extended period, and the disapointment of it not working. If I have given the wrong impression regarding Matt or his staff I apologise. I have had nothing but good experiences dealing with him and his company.
BTW Matt contacted me this morning and is going to pay for the adapter fitting. Great Guy, but not nessesary.
I only wanted to bring to your attention that there may be fitting issues with these, as is my case. I have been working with Nortons long enough to know that there are variables you must take into account.
JUG

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Sorry, read into it differently from your intent. Tends to happen on the interwebs every once in a while. :mrgreen:

CNW said:

I think you all know that we are really trying to offer some product that works and unfortunately sometimes issues sneak up and bite you in the butt. Rest assured that we will always react to feedback....Positive and Negative and correct the things we need to in order to make it right. Bottom line is that we want you to know that you are dealing with a company that stands behind the product we offer 100%.

Thanks

Matt

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Translation:
The buck stops here.

It sure is nice that there are still enthusiasts in this world.

CNW has a stellar reputation for customer service and this situation is exactly why, Matt agrees that there is a problem and he IS ON IT!.

Matt,
My CNW shopping list is huge but I won't hesitate when I finally "pull the trigger" and Crowbar my wallet open.

Unclviny

Matt,

What planet are you from? Don't you know the correct business model is to deny any and all responsibility for your product to actually work? I reckon you sold a lot of product today with your responses here. You've definitely set the bar quite high.

So our bikes may not be perfect? Then maybe I'm not crazy after all. There could be a market for better parts for our machines. LOL Keep up the great work guys, Chuck.

JimC said:

Matt,

What planet are you from? Don't you know the correct business model is to deny any and all responsibility for your product to actually work? I reckon you sold a lot of product today with your responses here. You've definitely set the bar quite high.

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That's because Matt works alone, he didn't get shot down by a manager and the marketing department not to mention the personnel manager and the lawyer in an endless meeting about a simple correction.

Jean

Bearing in mind how small a sample the manufacturer of modified components can check his parts on, it seems to me that there will always be a risk of newly designed parts not fitting every bike made during a long production run. The factory didn't always manage full interchangeability and they had drawings to work from.

Was there a clutch cable routing problem on this bike before the mod was carried out ? I can't see that the cable could ever have had a clear run so it probably always had a rough action. Were Matchless covers different again from Atlas ? The box sits at quite a different angle.

No rough action on the cable and no clearance problems either. Cable is flexable enough to clear, the braided line though is ridgid for the first 1 and 1/2 inches, add to that the length of the fitting in the tranny cover (once the fitting is screwed on) and you got about 1 3/4" rigid section and there in lies the problem. 45deg fitting will fix that, no problem.
JUG

So, why is it that I chose Matt to distribute my heads in the US? Can't quite put my finger on it.................