Headlight 'ears' o-rings

Have tried twice to get the double O-rings and the single O-rings to fit under the headlight ears when assembling my top and bottom yokes. Have cut two O-rings with the 'ears' twice, now. This seems like a goofy design. Are the O-rings really necessary, and why not use a slightly larger oring on the bottom rather than stacking two small rings?

Use an O-ring grease to hold them in place in the grooves of the triple tree upper and lower yoke. You will find a need for them when you are wondering where that buzz is coming from at a particular RPM.
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN

CanukNortonNut said:

Use an O-ring grease to hold them in place in the grooves of the triple tree upper and lower yoke. You will find a need for them when you are wondering where that buzz is coming from at a particular RPM.
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN

Click to expand...

Yeah. Did that. But, not sure where the O-rings are supposed to ride. Outside the 'ears' between the 'ears' and the yoke casting, or under the 'ears'?

Edit: follow whats below: Sorry I used memory back 4 years ago....Brain fart... these sit on the outside.
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN

Hi rockitdoc,

I just sent you a private message, I did the Oring install just a week ago

the search is down now but when it is up do a search for "damn Orings" and you will see my post and LAB's excellent picture of where they go

1up3down said:

Hi rockitdoc,

I just sent you a private message, I did the Oring install just a week ago

the search is down now but when it is up do a search for "damn Orings" and you will see my post and LAB's excellent picture of where they go

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have rattly headlight ears myself and now I know how to fix them. Anyway I was able to find that thread using Google site search and it is at
damn-rings-t23149.html

FWIW site search is very handy and actually works better than the built in search engine at many sites, the format to use at Google is like this
site:accessnorton.com headlight orings

Easier said (shown) than done, apparently. Here is my lower yoke with the two O-rings.



Then, I inserted the headlight bracket for a dry run off the bike to see if the O-rings would stay under the chrome piece like this:



Then, I turned the assembly over to see if the O-rings were under the bracket and in the recess in the yoke:



It's hard to see, but the arrow is pointing at the o-ring which has slipped from between the bracket and the yoke.

When installed on the bike, of course, this would not be seen, and may be how many folks' O-rings have come loose. Anyway, this seems like a crappy design. I am inclined to get a larger diameter o-ring to avoid the stack, which I think, leads to this issue. What d'ya think?

rockitdoc said:

Then, I inserted the headlight bracket for a dry run off the bike to see if the O-rings would stay under the chrome piece like this:

Then, I turned the assembly over to see if the O-rings were under the bracket and in the recess in the yoke:

It's hard to see, but the arrow is pointing at the o-ring which has slipped from between the bracket and the yoke.

Click to expand...

When the fork stanchion/tube is in position the O-rings can't slip or be forced out of position so it is simply a matter of installing the parts in the correct sequence. Attempting to do this without the stanchion is a waste of time (unless you take extreme care not to dislodge the O-rings until the stanchions are slid into position).

rockitdoc said:

When installed on the bike, of course, this would not be seen, and may be how many folks' O-rings have come loose. Anyway, this seems like a crappy design. I am inclined to get a larger diameter o-ring to avoid the stack, which I think, leads to this issue. What d'ya think?

Click to expand...

If you assemble the components correctly you should have no trouble.

Fit one stanchion to the lower yoke, slide the two lower O-rings down the stanchion until they are both seated in the yoke recess, one on top of the other, lower the headlamp bracket onto the stanchion until it is resting on the 2nd O-ring, repeat for the other side, then either fit or align the upper yoke with the single O-rings already in their recesses held in place with grease, slide up the stanchions or raise the lower yoke and fork assembly until the stanchion tapers engage with the upper yoke (as there's obviously more than one way to assemble the yokes and brackets).

That makes perfect sense and will work now that I understand the process. Thanks. I was nearly driven to drink....

Damn it..

Oh well, I think I'll have a drink, anyway.

Celebration, not frustration.

I'll even sleep better tonight.

BTW: I found a metric o-ring that could take the place of the two at the bottom and one at the top: 39mm OD x 37mm ID. It measures 1.9mm thick. The OEM rings are 1.3mm. So if you substitute two of the SI rings in place of three of the OEM rings, about the same space is occupied.

rockitdoc said:

BTW: I found a metric o-ring that could take the place of the two at the bottom and one at the top: 39mm OD x 37mm ID. It measures 1.9mm thick. The OEM rings are 1.3mm. So if you substitute two of the SI rings in place of three of the OEM rings, about the same space is occupied.

Click to expand...

It's your call, but with the yoke and headlamp bracket assembly in place and fully tightened, with the standard O-rings it should still be possible to (carefully) remove and replace each fork leg/stanchion at a later date if necessary without having to disturb the bracket assembly.
A thicker O-ring could make that process more difficult.

I use them as stock and have never had a problem...Not sure why they did it this way but it works without the ears rattling....With these British bikes, I always have to remind myself to not over think things....And yes as Lab said stanchions easily removed without disturbing the fork ears...