MK3 Rebuild - Final Stages

Congratulations on a stunning build. Simply gorgeous!

My I ask....what size is the rear tire? love the look.
 
Dang, that's nice. Beautiful color scheme, and possibly rarer than any of the individual Fireflake schemes.
 
Thanks for the comments. I have now done 6 miles and all seems very good. I need to get some mirrors and register it at DMV. Here are a few pics from today (click to enlarge):
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I had the BT tires on my MK2 and think they are great. The centers don't wear down, so good for freeway riding.
 
Dragonfly- to answer your question the rear tire is a 110/90 on an 18" rim. I will be documenting everything online later.
Cheers
 
Nice job Jerry, Do you see what I meant about the riding personalty from one Norton to another we talked about while back ?
Phil
 
Beautiful job jerry. I am also upgrading my mk111 and i would like to re-locate the coils to the battery box to clean up the front end. I noticed you have a bracket bolted to the front of the battery box for the fuses etc.- looks like a good mount for a dual fire coil. Did you fabricate it or was there an easier solution, and how did you mount it the to battery tray ?
 
Wonder if itll repel all the road dirt & stay immaculate if you wire it Neg. Earth . :p

Was wondering how some people keep them spotless the other night , beats counting sheep . There must be a way .

Looking Good . Simple , wasnt it . :lol: :( 11 / 10 , but we expect that from the Chief . :wink:
 
Well, I took a small stainless piece and bent a 90 on one end, then drilled it so it fits neatly behind the coils. Got it powder coated black. I kept the coils up under the tank and in my opinion its the best place so the HT leads are not too long. Used a dual coil situation with Trispark and am very happy with this setup so far. I purchased a 4 fuse (automotive style) holder with a cover and mounted it in front of the battery. I know most like to use only one fuse, but I prefer to separate out into 3 circuits (ignition, lights & everything else). The 3rd is a spare. Upon turning the ignition switch on it powers the fuse common (I am still + ground). I have 15 amp fuses in each circuit, but will need to lower this when I find some lower rated ones.

I was very happy with the MK2 I had rebuilt and owned for many years. The reason for the MK3 was mainly because I could not start the MK2 due to my back problems. I spent extra time and $ on the MK3 to ensure reliable starting. There were other reasons for the MK3, but that is the main one. I am going to have the back surgery in a month or so too and hope I can get out more/ further after.

I have built this MK3 to be reliable and to be ridden and that is the plan. I don't ride as far these days, no more than 150 Miles in a day usually. Yesterday I went to the DMV and registered it (it was from Colorado & I have to register it for California). I just have to take it for inspection and I am legal! I think I had better stop riding around with my girl friends Honda registration bolted on it.. In California it doesn't rain much so they stay pretty clean, but if it pours it should run just fine if I decide to ride in the rain or get caught out!

Cheers
 
Thanks for the advise. And I understand the reason for the MK111 - electric start Nortons are great now that we're all getting on! I'll go for a similar ignition system on mine - I just installed a trispark on my Triumph T100R and it's a different bike - consistant idle, no more flat spot just off idle and runs beautifully.

Regards johno
 
I'm wth you on the one fuse question Jerry. I have a Vincent that was restored by one the best there is, especially on mechanicals and engine work. For electrical tho, he just does the one fuse routine. The bike had an intermittent short that no one could find, It resulted in the one fuse frying on pretty much every ride. So after all that investment the bike was still not useabe, it always came home in the back of a pickup truck. The PO took the bike to an electrical specialist Company, Automarine electric for testing. Because the short was intermittent, they found nothing wrong.
Twenty years after the complete resto was done, the owner finally gave up on the bike and sold it to me. He had put just 550 miles on it in twenty years. The current cost of the parts alone for the resto was 15 k.

I was told by those in the know that the problem was with the original Lucas dynamo. I replaced this with a new modern Alton, but the fuse problem persisted. Finally while riding at night with headlight on I spotted sparks flying around the Lucas pattern headlight switch. This grounding out would only occur with the headlight on and only at a certain RPM (vibration)
Because of the one fuse wiring, it was very tough to find the problem. If the lights had been wired with a separate fuse, as they are now, it would have been easy to track, and they bike would not be disabled by the short. I should point out that the PO would carry several extra fuses, but the end result was a dead battery and a pickup truck ride home. I guess he always attempted to ride with the headlight on, so the grounding out would happen on every ride.

So when I built the Special I used two six place fuse boxes and somehow managed to use up all but one circuit. Overkill maybe, but everything is separated so problems are easy to track and do not knock out other items. The other plus is of course the fuse protection for the individual items, forexample the GPS has it's own circuit with 5 amp fuse as required, so does the self cancelling Turnindicator module. With the one fuse wiring job, if something goes wrong, these components can easily fry as the single fuse needs to be large enough for the biggest combined load, much to large to offer protection to smaller load items.
Taking things even further, one other thing to consider the wire itself. A friend who builds hotrods uses wiring kits with labelled wiring. The name of circuit is printed on the insulation every two inches or so along the wire. I was able to wire te bike up using his leftovers.
If there are a lot of circuits onthe bike, thisis really nice, you have everything labelled everywhere on the bike. Even the circuit for the heated vest got an appropriate wire, it is "heater" , there are wires labelled left turn, right turn and so on.

Beats the heck out of the all black wiring that was on the one fuse bike!

Glen
 
Just a note, shorts don't risk the fragil devices being feed only the wiring to or from them. So blown fuse saves the wire fire not the light bulbs or GPS display. I like the new age tiny slab fuses with a LED that lights when it blows - but don't fit with stock only bike and missed out with selecting the circuit box for Peel special anything goes. Darkness has helped me find otherwise invisible smoke leaks. Eye opening to see discharges out old HT leads yet still firing plugs, mostly everytime. I don't like the glass fuses as had them go bad at internal connections while looking fine in their screw together holders.
 
I disagree Steve, fuses do offer protection to the load items. For example, on one bike I have a Signal Dynamics self cancelling turn indicator module. The manufacturer calls for the input for this unit to be fused at 3 amps. After many thousands of miles, the insulation wore thru in one spot on one of the output wires. The fuse blew quickly, no harm was done to the unit. If the unit had instead been fed only by one main fuse, say a 20 amp,or so, it's delicate circuitry would have fried long before the fuse.
So the fuses protect the item as well as the wiring to the item, no small thing either. A circuit and load that requires 3 amp draw will pop a 3 amp fuse without affecting anything else, the same fault on a one big fuse setup can melt all sorts of wires and really mess up your trip.

Glen
 
Riding around in California you cannot take any chances especially on the freeway. If main fuse were to blow due to some lighting circuit or horn failure for example and bike stops due to no ignition power, the soccer mums will run you down. Its nuts here. Although we try to avoid these roads its impossible to completely. I had a Triumph T140 that blew the fuse due to a bad brake light short and my bike got stuck in middle lane of freeway. I will never forget it..
 
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