Jobs I'm glad I did...

The oil-tank mounting tab on my new-ish to me Mk3 was broken, so I sprang for a re-conditioned one from CNW. Were it not for that fact, I might not have pulled the mesh filter in the tank (among the receipts that came with the bike was one for a recent oil & filter change from a large british bike dealer). How glad I am that the DPO replaced one of the rubber-mounts with a stack of washers, breaking the mount and causing me, indirectly, to pull the in-tank filter, as it is about 2/3 covered in clag. Who knows how much longer it would have run for before the mesh blocked completely? A bullet dodged, a lesson learned.

When stripping my engine which was running but down on power as a rebore and new cam were needed I found an extra stellite pad off a follower stuck on top of the sump plug magnet just millimetre or so clear of the flywheel. The plug had been removed an refitted a few times an each time it must have released the pad then picked it up again an balanced it flat on top of the magnet as the flywheel spun above it. The 4 followers in the engine were radiused but this one was not. Evidence of hammer an chisel on cam an crank nuts meaning a long ago bodge job.
How lucky it didn't go for a fly around inside at anytime. Or was this an early attempt at a 5 valve engine :wink:

Hi toppy.
You don't know how lucky you are. Stellite is NOT magnetic!
Ta.

needing said:

Hi toppy.
You don't know how lucky you are. Stellite is NOT magnetic!
Ta.

Click to expand...

Well its a follower pad an its magnetic i keep on the lid of my tool box with a magnet as a kind of reminder to check things properly. As you pointed out Stellite is not magnetic so what are these pads made from? It is the correct size and shape on one side is the remains of whatever held it to the follower and the other side has what appears to be wiped markings from a cam lobe.

Hi toppy.
I don't know - but you are right that it can't be stellite if it is magnetic.
Lucky it is magnetic, whatever it is.
Ta.

I would check that recovered broken piece again with a magnet, as needing stated, Stellite is NOT magnetic!
If it is magnetic it has come from somewhere else.
I had a Stellite tip break on one of my cam followers on my 750, and I can tell you Stellite is very hard, very brittle, and it ruined the cam tunnel- lucky I head the clatter in the engine and investigated the cause of the problem

The cam is an after market job from sometime between 74 and 83 (from then till 2013 the bike was off the road) the story i was told was one of the 6 owners it had in 9 years tried to tune it an couldn't get it to run properly and then it changed hands as others had a go with it (hence 6 owners). My guess is looking at the old cam its the Nitrided steel type (was told it was a Dickinson but that was just someones vague recollection ) so maybe the pad was from some aftermarket source an came with the cam. It is badly worn by the cam an obviously as it parted company with the follower was not the best quality. Like i say i keep it as a reminder to not half do jobs or use poor quality parts.

There are signs of damage in cam tunnel but after opening it up to fit a PW3 the damage is no longer visible.

When I got my bike, I initially tried to just, "get it running" so I could ride it.... but I started to go backwards with the bike disassembling it and deciding to go a little deeper,... and then deeper again. It had a copper head gasket that leaked so I pulled the head. Then I decided to oversize the bore and put new pistons. At the time I was reading about superblends and began considering swaping main bearings. At one point a buddy said to me that if I didn't change to the new superblends and have the crank turned down NOW, then I was going to have to redo all the stuff I was already doing again at a later date... I reluctantly agreed and ended up doing the whole crankcase...

When I unbolted the connecting rods, I found that the existing rod shells didn't have weep holes in them so they weren't squirting oil on the cylinder walls. I was pretty glad I tore that engine all the way down once I found that.

I did so many things to this bike to make it run the way it does now, but it was a long road full of modifications to get to the point where the bike looks good, runs good, and handles pretty well. I made a list the other day. It was pretty long, and still I want to rebuild the gear box to upgrade the bearings and bushings...

Bernhard said:

I would check that recovered broken piece again with a magnet, as needing stated, Stellite is NOT magnetic!
If it is magnetic it has come from somewhere else.
I had a Stellite tip break on one of my cam followers on my 750, and I can tell you Stellite is very hard, very brittle, and it ruined the cam tunnel- lucky I head the clatter in the engine and investigated the cause of the problem

Click to expand...

There are several grades of stelite.

On the subject, I reached the decision that I should take the rear mudguard off & check out the horn. All seems ok, though the horn was loose on its bracket. Is there a better place to put the horn on a Commando?

Boxerfan said:

...... Is there a better place to put the horn on a Commando?

Click to expand...

There are newer ,smaller, louder horns on the market now that fit in almost any place you d like to mount it.

cjandme said:

Boxerfan said:

...... Is there a better place to put the horn on a Commando?

Click to expand...

There are newer ,smaller, louder horns on the market now that fit in almost any place you d like to mount it.

Click to expand...

Almost anywhere else is a better place to mount the horn!
Mine is attached to the coil bracket where I reckon it can do more good.
Ta.

I tore my bike completely apart before I found the horn. The horn is where you start the build

Yes , build the electrics around the horn , which in all common sense should be front and central to warn other drivers. Use a relay too. :!:

comnoz said:

Bernhard said:

There are several grades of stelite.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

And as you show there, there are stellite pads silver soldered to carbon steel components, which make it look as though the stellite is sticking to the magnet.

Triton Thrasher said:

comnoz said:

Bernhard said:

....... there are stellite pads silver soldered to carbon steel components, which make it look as though the stellite is sticking to the magnet.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Okay, so ...if a portion chipped off ,(stellite,silver solder and carbon steel base metal), seems like it would stick to the magnetic plug, which is what toppy said happened, and prompted them to start this thread, being glad that it didn't do any other damage, and was luckily found because of doing other maintenance.

I think I am glad for all the jobs I have done, even the ones that didn't work out but as a lesson learned.

But there are a couple that stand out like the Maney Outrigger, the spoking of the Excels, all the JS stuff, gutting the electrics to the bear essentials, no bearing left unturned(ha ha), belt drive, mag, on and on and on.......

The one thing that really stands out is the TM40 hunch. This has proven to be the stand out thing that brought it altogether as a streetable performance machine. I took some guff for this and I have always said, if it were not the very best thing for me and my bike, it wouldn't be there now. It should be made clear that in no way is this a recommendation. This is for sure a statement that if you have a hunch about something, go for it. It just might pay off in spades.

Triton Thrasher said:

comnoz said:

Bernhard said:

There are several grades of stelite.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

And as you show there, there are stellite pads silver soldered to carbon steel components, which make it look as though the stellite is sticking to the magnet.

Click to expand...

Stellite #6 as used on a Norton lifter is somewhat magnetic as produced. It is one of the more magnetic Stellite grades.
Stellite's magnetic properties increase with stress. Stress is induced when brazing it to the lifter body.
Once brazed and used it is quite magnetic. Jim