First Ride on my 850 Some Issues

Hello all. After rebuilding the R10 head, and new pistons and rings installed, I rode the 850. A few miles up the highway and back. Ran nicely, but valve noise upon my return. I had some minor oil leaks. I pulled the tank and retorqued the head and cylinders again with a valve adjust. Rode 16 miles on the highway. Much quieter, good oil pressure, no leaks and am happy with that. My first ride on a Norton. Powerful, but I took it easy as my rings are not yet broken in.
An issue I am not sure how to address. Both of my headsteady rubber mount were broken.
It appears that the engine was aligning more to one side than the other. Engine top not centered. As I am new to these great bikes, I am not sure how to proceed. I ordered two new rubber mounts but am not sure why this would happen. Frame looks very straight.
How should I try to align the motor so it is centered in the headsteady to frame unit.
I would surely appreciate any pointers on this issue, and how to rectify. I can see why you people like these bikes. It was a blast to ride and hard to hold back, but rings need time.

Were the rubbers new or old? The engine unit should be 1/8" - 3/16" to the left of the frame centre and this offset is built into the head steady. You could try adding a shim washer if it needs further alignment although it shouldn't really be necessary.


The Isolastics should maintain this distance so it's possible the Isolastics need changing.

Did you check your front and rear isolastics for internal clearance before your ride. Too loose a clearance combined with old head steady rubbers past their best would give you split head steady rubbers as the steel outsides are bonded to the rubber and prone to separate when old.

Thankyou for your responses. The bike has sat for 25 years. It looks like I will need to go through the isolastic mounts, which I have not. New rubber headsteady mounts are on their way. I will start reading up on rebuilding the others.
Thanks again for the pointers.

robertv said:

Thankyou for your responses. The bike has sat for 25 years. It looks like I will need to go through the isolastic mounts, which I have not. New rubber headsteady mounts are on their way. I will start reading up on rebuilding the others.
Thanks again for the pointers.

Click to expand...

Its a bugger replacing rear iso rubbers, primary case (including inner side) needs to come off...front straight forward. If going to replace, best to upgrade to the mk3 type, with the vernier adjustment front and rear. Also, beware of different suppliers selling overly hard rubber...i had a set from unkown source that were like hockey pucks and vibrations were pretty bad. Replaced with Andover set and more like running shoe sole hardness...vibes much lesser.