Greg's 73 Commando

I have decided to chronicle the story of my Commando.


My Dad bought it about 12 months or so ago. It had been sitting behind a shed for about 10 years and hadn't run in that time.







He took it home and gave it a clean up. The bike was quite rusty and all the alloy was badly corroded. He freed up the engine and replaced the wheel bearings. Then he set about giving it a quick spruce up. This was 6 weeks later:






There have been some teething problems with it. Initially the clutch slipped badly in the higher gears. That was fixed and after the first test ride at full power my 70 year old Dad decided it was too much for him and asked me if I would swap my 60 Velocette Viper for it. I didn't really want to because I had come to really like the Velo but the Commando was the first bike I saw in a book and really fell in love with when I was young.


In April this year I discovered a crack in the crankcase just before the Indian Harley Club Rally. There were also a few electrical problems with dodgy old wiring.
The engine survived the rally without the crack expanding any further but the electrics failed leaving me stranded on the side of the road and having to push it back the 5km to the Motocross track.
After the rally I stripped the motor and had the case and the inner primary cover welded.
The crank had the sludge trap cleaned out and was reshimmed. The pistons and rings were in good nick so a light hone was all that was required before reassembling the engine.
The wiring problems were sorted when a Podtronics regulator-rectifier was fitted and the constantly failing zener diode was ditched. I also fitted a Boyer electronic ignition which has given the engine a bit more zip.
I rewired the charging and ignition systems but left the lights alone for the time being. Later I am planning to strip and paint the frame and will rewire the whole bike then.
While I was happy with the bike as it was my Dad decided to paint his Velocette so I thought that this would be as good a time as any to do the Norton. From a distance it looked OK but close up you could see lots of little dents and chips and scratches in the paint work.


First step was to sand out the old areas of bog. Sadly, there were 8 layers under there.



So the best way I could think of to get rid of the rest of the paint sinceI was two and a half hours from Perth and the shops were closed was with a blowtorch and a scraper.






This was great fun as there was still a little petrol in the tank and every so often the flame would play across the opening and shoot a two foot jet of flame out. It made me jump the first time even though I was half expecting it. It was even more fun with the oil tank as that had lots of openings at different angles so you didn't know which hole the flames were going to shoot out of.

Once the tank was stripped it was time for the bodyfiller.




Then sanding to level the filler.



Next step was to lay some etch primer on it.




While I was at it I also did the left side panel.
which had a dent in it. (right side of the photo)




Side panel with filler.




And with etch primer.




And the oil tank.





Next step the following weekend was to prime and paint in deep black COB two pack. There was still a bit of work getting it to final paint ready stage.

I have a mate who paints helmets in his spare time and has a vinyl cutter so I got him to make up some stencils for me to paint the Norton logo on the tank.




I also found the Commando stickers for the side panels that my Dad's mate bought when he was in Tassie for Targa.




I also managed to find my old airbrush. It has been sitting in the bottom of a drawer in my store room for about the last 8 years or so. Hopefully I cleaned it last time I used it!

Backtracking a little. When I got this bike I was a total electrophobe. I was allergic to electrics and anything that I did touch was bound to cause the smoke that runs through the wires to escape and everyone knows that when the smoke escapes from the circuit things never work again.
However, I was bound and determined to fix the problem myself. Everyone told me to just take it to someone to fix it but there was no way that I was going to do that.
So, the initial problem was that the previous owner had fitted a dodgy Tandy style zener diode. This had burnt out and was going straight to ground, draining the battery. I read up as much as I could about the Norton's electrical system then went and bought a proper $80 zener diode for it. This time though I wired in a fuse so that if it did burn out it wouldn't create a dead-short to the battery. A test ride down to Byford and back seemed to be going well until the bike started popping and farting about a km from home. It stalled but after a couple of minutes sitting it kicked over and just made it home. The fuse between the battery and zener had blown leading me to believe that the zener was dead. So, another $50 (it pays to shop around) and another zener went in just in time for the Indian Harley Club 2 day rally. The battery was fully charged and away I went. Day 1 was excellent with some great roads and a lot of fun until the exhaust started to unscrew itself from the head and popped out. I stopped by the roadside and with burning hands screwed it back in and hit the cooling fines on the exhaust nut with a various bits of wood and a rock to try to tighten it up enough to get it back to the base at the motocross track. It popped out twice more on the way but I got there. Sunday morning and I only got about 10km before the exhaust worked loose again even though I had tightened it up overnight. I decided to pull the pin and head back to base and was about 5km away when the bike popped and farted and slowly died. A quick check showed that the fuse to the zener had blown again and the bike had been running without any charging for the whole weekend, slowly draining the battery. I pushed the bike back to base and slept off the exhaustion in the back of the Pajero. In the following weeks another zener and another blown and I decided I had had enough. Scouring of Norton forums and manuals and anything else I could find led me to believe that the alternator output was too high for a single zener and that on some later models two zener diodes were used to cope. By this time I was NOT interested in going down that route anymore and after speaking to Ben at Morley Motorcycles I purchased a Podtronics regulator-rectifier. This led me to have a go at overcoming my electrophobia and rewiring the charging system altogether. In the end it was easy which was what inspired me to rewire the ignition system as well and purchase the Boyer electronic ignition. These two changes made a world of difference.
The exhaust issue had chewed out some of the thread in the exhaust port and without having the money to send it of to be welded up and have the threads recut a bodge was done by grinding the flange on both exhaust headers down a couple of mm which allowed the exhaust nuts to screw further into the head and into fresh threaded metal. I also lockwired the flange nuts and since all the chrome was corroded away anyway I got my father to weld a brace to the front Isolastic engine mount to support the header pipe. In hindsight, I don't know why Norton didn't do that in the first place because the system that they had was a moral to cause the headers to work loose as the motor vibrated in the isolastic mounts.

There was a bit of a break before I did anything else with the bike. I only rode about 100 miles on it over the next 6 months but I did spend about 30 hours or so just tidying it up.
Then, a few weeks ago I was scheduled to go on a run with the Velocette Owners Club to York. I wasn't sure how the bike would go so on an overcast saturday I headed off up Greenmount for a test run. The ride was so much fun and the bike was going so well that it wasn't long before I ended up in Kellerberrin. I overnighted there and came back sunday into the strongest headwinds I think I had ever ridden in.
That run, about twice as long as the York run was going to be gave me enough confidence in the bike to do nothing but wash it for the following weekend. The run to York was through the worst weather I have ever ridden in. Some of the older bikes had to stop because they were being battered by the wind and rain and at one point I had to stop in the pouring rain on the Clackline-York road to help a car driver move a tree that had fallen and blocked the road.
The bike performed flawlessly and even with the howling wind and pouring rain never missed a beat. I think I may now be cured of my electrophobia.

Oh yeah, from now on, I'll keep my posts less wordy and try to get more photo's in.

Weekend two was FLAT OUT. Two and a half hours drive to my Dad's place then 8 hours Saturday and EIGHTEEN hours Sunday as well as 4 hours monday and I was still not close to finishing.

Because I was doing this job at my fathers place and we were doing both our bikes at the same time there were a LOT of parts that needed to be painted.
Below are most of the parts layed out:




It took an hour and a half to get all of those parts into etch primer then another hour and a half per coat to do the two coats of primer..

I'll detail the Norton (since this is what this thread is about) but I'll throw in some photo's of the Velocette at the end.

The Norton tank required a lot of work. I sanded, filled, sanded, filled, sanded, primed, sanded, filled and so on all afternoon saturday and all sunday morning. The two tanks required the most work.
This is the Norton tank primed and with spot putty added. Unknown to me at this stage I had a compatibility issue with the spot putty and if I didn't give it enough time to set and for ALL of the solvents to evaporate it would cause the base coat above it to blister. This led to a few pieces being done and redone before I figured out what the cause was.



Tank after more sanding:



Another low spot that I didn't get properly the first time:



I had some real problems with the side cover and had to fill it again.



After finally getting all of the low spots filled I primed it again with two coats of Hi Build 2 pack primer then a black guide coat:



Part way through sanding the guide coat too make sure I get ALL of the low and high spots out:



Once I was happy with the tank in primer I shot on two coats of Permacron base coat:



After getting both tanks and all of the other parts into base coat it was time to get into adding the tank logo. I had an idea that since I was striping the Velocette tank I might as well do the Norton tank as well. I decided to go with a real 70's style with a double stripe with the inner stripe stopping at the knee cutouts and the outer stripe continuing on around the tank. The idea seemed pretty good in my head and when I was discussing it with a workmate on friday.

This is the first strip of masking tape that I laid on to get an idea for the outer stripe:



I laid out the stripe with 3mm tape for the actual stripes and a 3mm gap between the stripes.



1am Monday morning and the tank is finally masked for the stripes and the NORTON logo and ready for painting:




1:05am and I must have been getting tired because I made a stupid mistake and with a new blade in my scalpel I simply pressed too hard while trying to trim the masking tape and buggered up the paint. Time to call it quits for the night.





9am monday morning and it was time to lay on some gold with the airbrush:



Part way through removing the masking tape:




Complete (sans clear coat) and with all of the masks removed.




I got the side cover sanded and repainted in base coat but ran out of time to do the clear coat so it will be another trip up the country to finish the job.

Below are some pics of the Velocette parts being done.

Dents filled and ready for sanding:




Tank sanded:




Primed and guide coated and part way through sanding:




Velocette tank in base coat. The two marks on the side are the screw holes for the knee pads:





Stripe layout as per Dad's instructions:




Velocette tank fully masked up and ready to spray:




Monday morning and the gold is applied with the airbrush:




Most of the masking removed:



Tape all removed and the final stripes:




This is a shot of the Velocette going through its restoration.



The engine was painted in PJ1 Yamaha case paint and looks as good as fresh blasted aluminium but won't get dirty and be impossible to clean after the first ride. The frame was painted by my Dad in a mixture of flat black and gloss black Killrust epoxy enamel to get just the right "semi-gloss" look that he was after.

Great stuff and thanks for posting that. More pics please!

Two steps forward and one step back!

I arrived up the country on the third weekend excited about finishing all the painting this weekend. When I got there, my Dad said "you might want to take another look at a few parts". I did and it was really deflating. Most of the work was pretty good but a few pieces were crap. I just knew that I couldn't go on without fixing them. Saturday morning I just couldn't get into it knowing that a lot of the parts had to be taken right back so to give me a bit of a break Dad suggested I set the timing on the Velocette.

So, after a quick assessment Dad and I decided that the petrol tanks were fine and most of the smaller pieces were fine but the two oil tanks, the Velocette toolbox, the Velocette outer primary chain cover and the tail light mounting bracket needed to be completely redone.
First was the Norton oil tank.
This still had lots of sanding scratches in it and it just looked terrible. I know it is going to be covered by the new side cover I have ordered from Norvil but I still wanted it to at least look respectable. So it was sanded back and redone. As you can see in the photo below, there is still a dent in the side of it but I can't get it out and I can't fill it because the tank actually "pulses" in and out with the pressure being pumped back from the crankcase vent. This would cause any body filler to quickly pop out.





The next piece to be done was the tool box of the Velocette.
There were lots of dips and hollows in it so I just layed a thick layer of filler across the face of it.




Once the filler was dry I started block sanding by hand as well as using a small orbital sander once I was happy with the shape. Most of the filler ended up as dust on the bench and the floor.





The tool box was finally done with only a very thin layer of filler left.





Then it was the turn of the Tail Light mount. This had more dips and bumps in it than main street and required the same treatment as the toolbox. LOTS of filler then sanded back to make a flat surface.





A few other Velocette parts were done as well such as the headlight brackets




and the front fork sliders.





Then it was on with the last of the primer. (note the $4.95 bunnings overalls and the respirator. This stuff has Isocyanates in it which don't do good things to your lungs.)




Once all that was done it was time to lay some clear onto the petrol tanks.
Right before I was about to spray I gave everything a wash down with wax and grease remover and I found this on the Velocette tank.





It was a spot right on the top.
Luckily it wasn't too bad and a bit of judicious rubbing with some ultra fine paper seemed to get rid of it.

Finally everything was ready and 4 coats of clear were layed onto the petrol tanks.













Both tanks look great though there is a little orange peel in the Norton tank.
My plan was to see how they looked when I got back the next weekend and if I wasn't happy with them I would give them both a rub back with some ultra fine paper and either lay on some more clear or just buff them out.
At this stage I doubted I would have the bike ready in time to ride out to the Kings of Wanneroo meeting but it wouldn't be too much longer.

Great work, excellent projects.

grandpaul said:

Great work, excellent projects.

Click to expand...

Thanks GP. It was your posts here and on your Vintage Bikes Forum on Chip's commando that inspired me to do this.

I can't take any credit for inspiring anyone in the way of paint work!

I hardly ever get intermediate shots of my painter going at it, he just gets it done and calls me to pick it up.

You look like a man on a mission, and you have the tools for the job.

Well, what a weekend! Everything that could go wrong, and some things that didn’t seem like they could, did.
I dropped things and scratched them, leading to some parts needing repainting. I had runs in the clear coats, sanded through the clear coat and accidentally stuffed up BOTH “750 Commando” side panel stickers. The first when I took the backing off it, realised I had to do something else and stuck the backing back on, but backwards.
The second when I removed the backing, held it over the side panel and simply dropped it! The sticker slipped from my hand and fell on to the middle of the side panel. These stickers are not like normal ones and the only way to remove it was to scrape it off with my thumbnail inside a rag wetted with wax and grease remover. It took the best part of half an hour to get it off without scratching the panel.

At least one thing went right, On thursday the parts I ordered from Norvil’s arrived, including the much needed right side panel:

Clockwise from top left. Side panel with fittings on top. Flashy new lockable petrol cap (I couldn't very well put the old scratched one back on, could I?). Front disc brake pads.




First step on the Norton parts was to etch prime the new side cover:





Once I had both side panels in black base coat it was time to decide what kind of stripes I was going to put on it.
This was my first idea:





This was my second idea:




And my third:




In the end, I decided to do the inside stripe cutting off just inside the bend. It kind of matches the tank that way:




To get the design matching on both sides I laid some paper over the side panel after I had laid out all the masking tape and rubbed over it with the side of a HB pencil, leaving a matching impression. This was then cut out and used to mark up the second side panel.

Once both panels were laid out, they were masked up ready to have the stripes painted:





Laying on the gold paint for the stripes with the airbrush:





Stripes painted:





Once the paint had set overnight, I removed the masking tape:









Next step was to spray some clear on the side panels:





Once everything was cleared, I decided to see if I could rub out the orange peel in the petrol tank from last week.





I was going along great until I went through not only the clear but the colour as well:





I was not a happy fellow. The only solution was to fix up the spot where I went through the colour then re-clear the whole tank. First step was out with the airbrush and add some black.





Once that was done, it was on with another 3 coats of clear. In order to make sure I got the paint, hardener and thinner in the right ratios, and since I was only using a touch up gun and didn’t want to mix big quantities I had to make up my own mixing sticks. A packet of pop sticks, a ruler and a ball point pen did the job:






In an effort to make sure that I didn’t get any orange peel, I laid the clear on nice and thick. Buh-bow! Big mistake:





Runs! Right down the side of the tank. There were also a couple of runs on the other side too.
This left me with no option but to sand it down again with 2000 grit sand paper and buff it up with some Farecla G3. Buffing a petrol tank is quite difficult because the tank is light enough to be thrown around by the buff. That is, unless you bolt the tank down to the bench.

The end result was pretty good:





I now have all my parts back home and just need to fit them. Before I can ride the bike again I will also have to fabricate a new ignition switch mount because the old one was riveted to the oil tank support bracket and with the new side panel I now have for the right side this will cover the area where the switch was. If I get a decent break in the weather this week I may still have the bike ready to ride up to Wanneroo on Sunday.





Most of last Saturday was spent working on the Velocette parts that still needed work. The mudguards both needed a lot of work.
This is the rear mudguard:




While I worked on that, Dad decided that the Starter motor chain cover (yes, the Velocette has electric start!) needed a bit of panel work before he sends it off to the chromers.
The only way to fill a damaged part and still have it able to be chromed is with metal so in this case Dad decided to do it in solder:





Sanding after soldering over the damage:





The finished part:





Before I could complete the rest of the Velocette parts, some of them had to be masked. Some parts were more difficult to mask than others. To mask the seals inside the front fork shrouds I needed something that could go in between the shroud and the slider covering the spring which is outside the stanchion on this old bikes, not inside like on modern bikes. Glad Wrap! Some times you just have to think outside the box.





Here are some of the Velocette parts hanging up to dry after being clear coated:






This is what the Velocette tank looks like now:

Still bolted to the bench:





And on the bench:








Overall, I am pretty happy with the results considering my lack of experience and the size of the job.

I did learn a few lessons.
1. Don't set yourself up for a job that you have to travel two and a half hours to get to each week. It just cuts into the amount of work time you have too much.
2. Keep it small. I simply took on too much with more than a dozen parts needing working before painting then clearing.
3. Don't Rush. Trying to take short cuts doesn't work. It usually makes a job take longer.
4. Don't be so f##king clumsy!
5. Probably a couple dozen other things but I was too wiped when I wrote thisto think what they were.

I stopped off on the way home tuesday to get some nuts and bolts to put the bike back together.
When I got home I whipped the cover off the bike and got to it.




First job was to put the oil tank back in.




I pulled the masking tape off then wrapped the oil tank in glad wrap so that I wouldn't scratch it putting it back in.
I got it in after a lot of stuffing around. The bolt that attaches from the bottom has a 7/16" head and has so little room around it that I couldn't even use a ratchet on it because it doesn't have enough "swing" to move to the next tooth on the ratchet. The only way I could do it was to use a ring spanner for about 1/32nd of a turn then switch to an open end spanner for the same. Then back to the ring spanner then back to the open end spanner but turned around the other way. It took 25 minutes just to do up the one bolt.




With the tank fitted and glad wrap removed.





That was all I got done Tuesday. For now I need to get a 1/4 tap to clean out the threads in the side panel mount on top of the oil tank since it is all rusted from being exposed for all those years. I also found that the new side panel doesn't fit. The bolt holes don't line up with the oil tank so I am probably going to have to make up some sort of bracket that will hold the panel in line with the base of the seat and centred in the frame. I will also need to figure out a way to fit the ignition switch since my old mount will be covered by the side panel and without an airbox I can't mount it in the standard position. The switch is also non-genuine anyway.
I am still a chance to get it ready for Sunday. :wink:

Dang! You guys who know what you're doing p### me off!

Seriously, beautiful work! Am loving the story, please continue!

OK, I knocked off early yesterday and spent some quality time with the bike.
As I said before, the side panels don't fit. Here is why. The hole in the panel doesn't line up with the hole in the oil tank. At the front or the rear.



I did get around to tapping the threads in the oil tank to clean the rust and gunk out though.



The next issue was the ignition switch. Since I had decided that I wasn't going have time to get the bike finished for Sunday I decided to put the switch back where it was for now. I will come up with a better solution when I have more time.



After that, I refit the petrol tank then found that the flash new locking petrol cap I bought doesn't fit. The new cap has a steel piece across it that looks like it locks in to recesses in the filler opening. Unfortunately, my tank doesn't have any recesses.






So in the end, it was back on with the old one.
But at least I got the bike back together and fired it up (3rd kick).



The bike is far from finished and there are a few things that I am still not too happy about but I think it is time to clock up a few miles on it instead of just workshop hours.


So it looks like I will be making it out to Wanneroo on Sunday to watch the Kings of Wanneroo race meeting after all. It should be awesome with the riders listed below. Most making their first appearance here.
*Karl Harris – Robmac Yamaha BSB and World Superbikes (’99 European Superstock crown)
* Cameron Donald (Aus) Relentless Suzuki rider of the North West 200 plus double TT winner in 2008.
* Bruce Anstey (NZ) Relentless Suzuki teammate of Donald and seven career TT wins.
* Ryan Farquhar (N.Ire) Harker Kawasaki Racing - multiple international road race wins at TT, Ulster GP and NW 200)
* Michael Laverty (N.Ire) Relentless Suzuki – Current British Supersport Champion
* John Laverty (N.Ire)
* Michael Swann (N.Ire) – 10 times Irish Superbike Champion and currently freelance road tester
* Ian Lowrey …
* Adrian Coates (N. Ire) British Superstock & Henderson R 1 Cup, former 250cc British Champion.

Now you can see why I was so keen to get out there to watch the racing.

In two weeks time we also have the Australian Historic Road Racing Championships at Wanneroo and I am planning to spend the whole weekend there spectating.

Well I made it to the Superbikes and the racing was awesome. Those blokes are seriously talented.

The Norton ran great but it did stall on me a couple of times coming home.
I decided then that I should get my carb balancer finished and give the bike a tune up.

First I found some extruded aluminium that was meant for screen door frames.


I glued two pieces back to back so that I could run the tubing down the grooves.

I masked some of it off so that there would be some graduations to make it easier to see the side to side difference.


Graduations taped out.


And painted before removing the masking tape.


Here is the finished body with the parts to put it together.


I ran the hose down one side through the groove, through a hole in the bottom then up the groove on the other side. I fitted a tap that I bought from an aquarium shop at the top of each groove to act as a damper and also to be able to close off each tube so that I can store the balancer without the mercury leaking out.


Here is a close up of the balancer with the mercury in it.


So now all I have to do is hook it up to the inlet manifold and see how it works.
I hung the balancer on a stand and fitted the tubes to the vacuum side of the inlet manifold.


Then I started it up and using the idle speed adjuster screws set the idle speed and made sure that I adjusted both sides so that the mercury was balanced in the tubes.
Here is what it looked like before I adjusted it.


I forgot to take a shot of it after.

Next it was time to set the mixture.

I have a little tool I find quite helpful for this.

The Colortune.




This is the actual bit. It is like a mini sparkplug that goes in place of the normal spark plug. It has a clear section that allows you to see inside the combustion chamber while the engine is running.


And this is it fitted to the motor.


I started up the engine and simply adjusted the mixture screw until I had the correct "bunsen blue" color through the colortune. It is hard to see below because it was filmed on my digital camera, not a video camera.

When it is rich, the flame will be quite yellow. When it is too lean, the flame goes white. The mixture is perfect when the colour is what is known as "bunsen blue", just like a bunsen burner in science class.




Sorry about the focus, the vibration must have upset the camera's autofocus.

Finally got to put some miles on the bike over the weekend. Saturday painted the petrol tank in some cheap white enamel to use as a guide coat to get rid of the last remnants of the orange peel.



Once the white was on I started to sand the tank down with some 2000 wet and dry.




I ran out of time to finish the job properly because I was going out Karting saturday evening. I did get the bike looking OK but it still isn't finished properly. I will post an "after" pic once I finish.

Monday I rode the bike to work but noticed that it wasn't running quite right. When I got home I had good look around and found a crack in the carb body.



If you look closely, you can see a crack running from the air filter to the main body. What you can't see in the photo is that it runs part way up the slide chamber as well.
Seems to be the way with this bike that every time I ride it something else breaks. I can only assume that this bike had a pretty hard life before it got to me.
So, it is decision time.
Do I just find another second hand Amal and whack that on?
Do I buy a new one and have one old one and one new one?
Do I buy two new Amals and in 12,000miles have them both need rebuilding?
Do I switch to a single Mikuni, which seems to be quite a popular mod for these bikes?
Or do I go crazy and spend more than the bike is worth and whack on a set of twin Keihin's?

At the moment I am leaning toward the Mikuni idea. Has anyone had any experience with them? How is their rideability and performance?

I have a 34 mikuni on my 75 850, I can say it idles smooth and has plenty of low and mid range grunt. As far as top end goes I have never tried to see how fast she will go, As I really don't think I would really be too impressed compared to my S1. Some may run them hard but not me. I bet some may rip me on this but it's how I feel. But the carb works great! Chuck. :lol: :lol:

A pair of properly set up Amals will serve you as well as you could want. Moreover, you've clearly got the skills to get your Amals dialed-in.

Get a used right hand Amal and get the pair sleeved. New needle jets and viton float needles and you've got what you need make them run and run well.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anyone here that does sleeve the Amal's. If I had to send them off to get done the cost would be greater than the alternatives. Especially with the Aussie dollar in freefall at the moment.
I did find this today http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120343241736&fromMakeTrack=true

They look like a good deal and even have a bit of a "retro" look to them unlike the Mikuni's. Best of all, it is a simple bolt on twin carb setup.

Has anyone tried them?

Some years ago there was a bloke in Australia that traded under the name Re-sleeve-a-carb. I don't know if he is still around or not. It might be worth asking at some of the british bike shops, they may know if he is still trading.

I don't know if I have made the right choice or not but I have decided to go with these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120343241736&fromMakeTrack=true so we will see what happens.
They are supposed to be a straight bolt on replacement for the Amals.
I decided not to go with the Amals after reading so many instances of warped bodies, sticking slides, worn out slides and generally a poor quality build. If the Keihin's don't work I will reassess my decision then.

Please let us know how they work, I do know that Keihin makes a great carb. It seems like a great price too! WOW!