Headlight bracket has movement up and down.

Hi all, after having work done on the front suspension of my 1974 850 Commando l had a knock in the front suspension.
On investigation I have found that the left side headlight mount has about 2-3mm of up and down movement, after looking at many exploded diagrams and reading of manuals I have still not worked out how to tighten the assembly, can anyone advise me of how to do this ?
Of course I’ll talk to the shop that did the work but I have a ride with my club on Saturday 21/4 18 to the All British Rally in Victoria Australia and I’d like to fix this so I can go, I also want to understand and do more myself.
Thanks in advance for your advice, Rhys.

Are the O rings in position, part 54, if there are then add more after checking your yokes are fully seated.

https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-drawing/72/front-forks-steering-lock-steering-head-bearings

Although it's on the diagram, the upper O-ring isn't marked (54) so there should be three each side. One above, and two below each headlamp bracket tube.
https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-drawing/72/front-forks-steering-lock-steering-head-bearings

kommando said:

Are the O rings in position, part 54, if there are then add more after checking your yokes are fully seated.

https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-drawing/72/front-forks-steering-lock-steering-head-bearings

Click to expand...

Thanks, how would I go about making sure the yokes are fully seated ? Thanks, Rhys.

See this thread, and as L.A.B. points out in REply #8, it's a waste of time to try this without using the stanchions. I spent hours screwing around with these fiddly devils until Les came to the rescue.
https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/headlight-ears-o-rings.20796/

The yokes should be hard against the bearing inners both top and bottom, if the nut on the bottom has been torqued up correctly before the tab washer was rolled over then it should be ok. So unpeel the tab washer and apply the torque listed in the manual 30 ft/lbs.

Slacken the lower yoke 'pinch bolts ' (Allen screws) '44' first, before checking the tightness of the stem nut. As it's only the left-hand bracket that's loose then it does sound as if one or more O-rings are missing on that side.

The 'exploded' nature of the parts diagram has led some to believe the O-rings fit inside the bracket tubes which isn't correct.

Hi Rhys, I posted this on another thread, but it's well worth doing while you have it stripped anyway...

The headlights brackets (aka ears, (although they look more like noses to me)) on my bike making an awful racket as the O-rings were shot. I ordered new rings, and stripped the front end. When I looked at the fit between the brackets and the stanchions I realized why the O-rings fail. The bracket tubes are quite a loose fit so must still move about. So I looked for something suitable to shim them. In the bin I found a plastic TV dinner container, and cut it into strips about 25mm wide, and long enough to wrap around the stanchion minus about 1/4". The container plastic was different thicknesses at the bottom sides and ends, so I shimmed each end of each bracket choosing different strips until I got a nice sliding fit on the stanchion. Then applied contact adhesive to the back, inserted it into the tube, (not bridging the seam weld inside) and pushed it over the stanchion and left it till it dried. Did the same on the other three, and put it all back together. The difference was amazing!





I also found that assembling everything onto the bottom yoke then lifting it into position was far simpler than trying to assemble everything in situ. If you can get somebody to place the lockwasher on and start the bottom nut when you have the fork assembly in position it makes it very easy.


Hope this helps,


Cheers,

cliffa.

As a temporary fix.... dental floss or waxed (wire bundle) lacing cord wrapped around it a few times

Hi,

I had the same problem and made up some cork washers that I placed under the top yoke and were compressed by the 'ears'- no more rattles and all but invisible. I may have picked up the idea on this site.