Commando Cafe Racer Rebuild

Well! Rearsets eh. What a bleedin marvel! What can I say. A much more comfortable position.
Added bonus was sorting the shift position that before I could never get right.
It was either too low for getting first or too high for 2,3,4 without taking your foot off the peg to either toe up or thump down.
Now - just right. Exactly where it should be.
Man I am just so impressed. That's the way it's meant to be! Comfort and a smooth change.

I had remarked in an earlier post about hitting redline rather easily, which didn't seem right to me.
I've just come back from a short fang out along the Eastern. 50mph is 5,000 rpm in top. That can't be right can it????
I think something's rather non-linear in the tacho...

I'll drag out the CRO and take some spot rpm measurements and compare them with the tacho.

Can't remember the counter shaft sprocket I am using, think it's standard, but I am running 4000rpm's @70 mph in fourth gear. I got so sick of the norton throttle and carb set up that I finally just went to a single carb. The 2-1 splitter is garbage and I've had a great runner for a long time now without it. I wouldn't mind trying the set up you are going to just to see the difference so post up pics when you can.

Yep tacho's definitely crook. Started bouncing all over the range on a steady engine speed. Needs a bit of work. Speedo rebuilder down the road in Ringwood. Think I'll drop it off to him and see if he can fix it.

Only had an hour to spare this arvo but got in a decent run. Spotted another couple of Commandos at Warrandyte but wanted to keep going so stopped for a quick look then moved on. Absolutely perfect arvo and I was right in the groove. Just loved the new seating position and enjoyed the improved gearshift. Did not want to stop!

About 5ks from home though I noticed an awful lot of oil on the right boot - killed the engine immediately and pulled over. One of the lines to the oil cooler had almost come off and was pissing oil everywhere. Reseated the pipe, reclamped and checked the oil level. Still above min so can't have been happening for long. Judging from the kickstart, compression still as strong as ever, so started up. No untoward noises so I don't think any damage done. Tiptoed home and shut her down.

How can I check if I've damaged the big end or any other part of the motor? Any suggestions? Also need a rethink on the oil cooler... Is it really worth the hassle????

Dave, any damage and you would have heard it. Sounds like you caught it in time, lucky you.
graeme

Yeah I started her up again when I got home and had a good listen Graeme. No new instruments in the engine symphony. Going to rethink the cooler.

Heck mine pissed a whole quart out before I found it and there was no problem. Leaking oil is like a head wound, makes a horrible mess, but is never as bad as it looks unless there is a visible hole.

Less than a litre drained out when I did the oil change. Still, seems to be running just fine, no metal in the drainage and no new engine sounds. Got the tacho back from repair shop this morning. A $130 ouch, but it should now be accurate not 20% or more high and as there's no more drag on the cable input it should not flicker (even with a new cable). Rearsets almost optimised, just working on the brake pedal stop, danged if I can make sense of it. Should be all sorted tonight (so it's got to rain all weekend now ).

Lionell Ottos' in Brisbane charge a lot more than $130 for a Tach or Speedo repair.
Where did you send the Tacho to?
For that price it would be worth sending items from Brisvegas to Melbourne for repair. Quicker too.
Ottos' do a very good job but have a lot of work and aren't cheap.
graeme

Hi Graeme,

Yeah not complaining, just spending a leetle more on Bessie than I'd like to be doing at the moment. Other projects are waiting my abundant time and energy (but shallow wallet) as you know. No idea on the quality of their work, let you know when I get home and install the tacho.

Thinking of dropping off the speedo for just a cleanup and a kph dial conversion which they do - I saw their NVT dial overlays. It's too long ago that this country went metric and it's not wise to be computing equivalents while riding.

Anyways they are Ringwood Speedometer Service, (03) 9874 2260, 693 Whitehorse Rd Mitcham 3132 open 9:00am to 5:00pm Mon through Fri but NOT open Saturday morning. No web page that I know of. (And of course, I've no affiliation.)

Will be interesting to find out what rpm per 100k the bike is actually doing and what I've set the idle rpm to!

Thanks Dave, my Norton speedo has the ta tars at about 100kms, (could be 80, or could be 150?) don't know it shakes all over the place. And the 450 tacho tells lies too.
Good to have an option.
graeme

Good news - good tacho work! And I see I've set the idle at around 500rpm. Duh, maybe that's why it stalled all the time. And the rev range - I've only been taking it to around 5k max - when I thought I'd been buzzing the engine!

Bad news - leaking oil from between head and cylinder at the front. Not a lot, but any from here is not good. I'll try retorquing the head if someone can advise the tube spanner required, but I fear by now that either the gasket is shot or worse, the head warped as well. Really not happy with the chappy that rebuilt the engine. Not happy at all.

Graeme, although mine works fine, I'm going to get them to give the speedo the once-over and get a kph face put on it. Will let you know how I go and what it costs.

Dave, I just removed the head from my Mk3 and used a 13mm box spanner. It was a little tight but wiggled on after I cleaned up the burs inside the hex from its manufacture with a small triangle file.
And a ground down 13mm ring for the centre bolt at the middle rear. (ground the outside of the ring thinner)

Also had oil weeping and showing where yours is, it was the rocker covers and the rocker spindle covers. (found its way to the same place you mentioned)
The rocker covers needed to be lapped on some wet and dry on a piece of glass. They were not even close to flat.
Fixed the rocker covers and no more leaks or oil anywhere.

Good with the tacho.

graeme

Yep, you were right Graeme, the rear left rocker shaft cover. The oil was weeping out, spreading in to a rather fine film then immediately disappearing into the head recess to finally drip out the front. Very cunning. The outer plate was a banana, over 0.5mm out of flat. Put it on the vice anvil and gave it a couple of stout strategic whacks with a hammer to make it approximately flat then dressed with coarse and finally fine W&D over my flat finishing surface. I had replaced the inner and outer gaskets on all the covers only a couple of months ago and had dressed a couple of them then. Funny I missed this one, it was visually bowed. Very weird, put it down to a senior moment maybe.
My apologies to the mechanic, this is one foulup that was not his fault.

I s'pose it's on the cards as I keep using it, that parts that were old are now going to fail. This time it's the gearbox. Nothing broken, just that now it's starting to dribble oil. Definitely the kickstart seal, but looks like the drive side is also loosing oil.

Can anyone please tell me - can the drive seal be replaced without removing the gearbox from the frame? It looks like it's accessible after removing the front sprocket (and clutch of course).

May as well replace said sprocket whilst I'm at it. And the lock plate. And the chaincase felt seal ... grumble, grumble... Think there's still a part that I haven't replaced. Maybe a bolt somewhere...

Yes, the seal is right behind the sprocket. It's probably metal. Easiest to tap it with a screw(s) and pull out

Thanks Pelican, much appreciated.

No problem, if you don't have any of the screws, once you take the spacer out there is a little bit of room , but the shaft is still in the way. Tough to get leverage with a screwdriver, but you can make like a l bracket as a puller.

Been plagued by various oil leaks, so have been on a big replacement job - kickstart, gearbox and primary drive. Been taking a while though.

Rode into town early yesterday morning and bought the new seal. Parked outside of PS before they opened which seemed to have pissed them off mightily because the TRX was parked-in with bikes on sale when I got back - very difficult to get it out! Don't park on our patch boy.

Now with all new seals, (handcut) gaskets and new swashplate, it should be pretty oil tight. Well, I hope so anyways, can't be any worse. The Norton primary seal doesn't seem to be that tight, but I couldn't wait until the plastic-coated one to arrive next week (or whenever). Put a skim of locktite around the periphery - hope this helps.

Just reverse the assembly process. Yeah, sure. What? The clutch isn't in the same plane as the output shaft? No shims missing - could never have been right. Ahhh, so that why there's marks where the primary chain has been machining away the transfer case. Half an hour filing a large steel washer to suit at 10:30 at night dripping sweat and we now have a much better line-up and clearance from the transfer casing. As I had checked the transfer case line-up to be within a mm or so with a straightedge, the uniform clearance of the chain along its length should indicate that the chainwheels are now in the same plane too.







Spent a bit of time (ok, a lot) with wet-and-dry on the outer case over the last couple of weeks. They do come up nice. Addictive though.

Anyone got any idea where you can get that translucent (nylon?) fuel line? The rubber stuff is rubbish. What I've got is dual-layer and the layers always separate.

Oil in the tranny case today and should be riding again this arvo without losing a cup of oil every 10ks! Whoohoo!

I seriously need to clean up the workshop...

motion pro is where I got my clear fuel line. Get the premium kind. 3' is like $12-15

Entertaining to recoiling journey towards a fully fettered Commando. Which is a rather ephemeral condition even then. BTW to me your triplex chain looks like its rather taunt w/o any sag in the bottom run, once primary hits road temp it can tightens up enough to bend shafts. Double triple check cold slack enough to take the heat. Must check when hot to know for sure or bent is bent.

The kick lever oil ring seal is too loose a fit to not weep warm oil. Groove needs a bit of back up by cig. pack thick foil in valley. Then oil parts and smear RTV on assembly, let set over night - works about as good as machined to fit upgrade real oil seal.