My '73 850 rebuild..

KSUWildcatFan said:

cyclegeezer said:

I sympathize with you. My Norton sits in the corner, headless, its rebuilt head sitting on my workbench. All I need to do is get everyone else's bikes out of my garage so I can find the time to work on my own stuff. Oh well, it's too damn hot to ride much anyway.

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Shove those bastards out the door!

I agree on it being too hot except the AC in my car is currently non-functional so I'm pretty much screwed either way.

-Jordan

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I can't just shove them out the door, they're paying for my other toys. I made some headway today, an old BSA A10 that's been here literally months looking for a decent gearbox finally found one and will be going home tomorrow.

Nice! Do you at least have a cooled work area? That's one of the biggest pluses about working out at dad's--fully air-conditioned shop!

I can only imagine working on my bike in this heat, either in my driveway or garage. Yuck.

I just hope I finish this bike soon so I can get some miles on it this year. I bought it almost exactly a year ago and have put exactly 0 miles on it. The $8300-to-0-miles ratio is not what I would call a favorable ratio. Bleh.

-Jordan

bwolfie said:

Bring your car on up to Wisconsin and i'll service it for you, trade some parts.

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lol. We're working out all of its problems, slowly but surely. The AC probably has some stupid $3 part that's messed up. Everything (compressor, etc) seems to be working, I'm just not getting cold air.

Also, something about a drive to Wiscy with my 226,000-mile car scares me a bit..lol

-Jordan

KSUWildcatFan said:

Nice! Do you at least have a cooled work area? That's one of the biggest pluses about working out at dad's--fully air-conditioned shop!

I can only imagine working on my bike in this heat, either in my driveway or garage. Yuck.

I just hope I finish this bike soon so I can get some miles on it this year. I bought it almost exactly a year ago and have put exactly 0 miles on it. The $8300-to-0-miles ratio is not what I would call a favorable ratio. Bleh.

-Jordan

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Yes, a cooled workspace is necessary in this weather. It has the additional benefit of making me more productive since the garages is closed and folks don't just drop by to chat while I'm working. I do miss the BS sessions, but they will return with cooler weather this fall.

cyclegeezer said:

KSUWildcatFan said:

Nice! Do you at least have a cooled work area? That's one of the biggest pluses about working out at dad's--fully air-conditioned shop!

I can only imagine working on my bike in this heat, either in my driveway or garage. Yuck.

I just hope I finish this bike soon so I can get some miles on it this year. I bought it almost exactly a year ago and have put exactly 0 miles on it. The $8300-to-0-miles ratio is not what I would call a favorable ratio. Bleh.

-Jordan

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Yes, a cooled workspace is necessary in this weather. It has the additional benefit of making me more productive since the garages is closed and folks don't just drop by to chat while I'm working. I do miss the BS sessions, but they will return with cooler weather this fall.

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Indeed. I definitely enjoy the cool shop for working on the bike. Working in the 105+ degree heat absolutely sucks. I'm just lucky dad built a Macy's-sized shop so I can work on my car/bike/whatever without feeling like I'm going to die of heat stroke! Thank god for parents finally having money.

-Jordan

Huzzah! New fork tubes have arrived! They may be emgo but they definitely look nice! They certainly look better than the old, worn (pitted) tubes that the bike came with. Those tubes probably NEVER would have sealed worth a damn.

So, now the goal is to get the front end together ASAP so we can get this thing finished!

-Jordan

Let me kow how the emgo's fit, mine will be here in 2 days.

bwolfie said:

Let me kow how the emgo's fit, mine will be here in 2 days.

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Will do. They look very nice and the threads are right. Much more than that, however, I'm not sure just yet. Hopefully they'll be OK!

-Jordan

KSUWildcatFan said:

Huzzah! New fork tubes have arrived! They may be emgo but they definitely look nice! They certainly look better than the old, worn (pitted) tubes that the bike came with. Those tubes probably NEVER would have sealed worth a damn.

So, now the goal is to get the front end together ASAP so we can get this thing finished!

-Jordan

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I finally found time to work on my Commando today, so the head is back on and new oil pipes have been plumbed to the rockers. It might be running again in a day or two.

I'm jealous. I'm still probably a week or two out. Ugh.

Well, I didn't get as much done tonight as I had hoped (not leaving work until 6:00--2.5 hours late--didn't really help), but we did manage to get the forks rebuilt using new bushings, seals, and Emgo tubes:







Instrument housings from the '70 (need some spots filled and then painted black). Hopefully my original housings aren't too tall..



Headlight ears and new European gaiters:




The front end WILL be all the way put back together on Saturday. For now, sleeeeeeeeeep.

-Jordan

Front end is back together:

Coils polished and reinstalled. Some wiring cleaned up and tucked away.

Finned rocker box covers and neoprene gaskets finally installed:









After lunch: Install polished spindle covers, install headsteady.

-Jordan

It's looking more and more like a bike!

You might want to put some new sparkplugs in...

A lot of pressure when you get to that stage of the build. Trust me, I know. :mrgreen:

swooshdave said:

You might want to put some new sparkplugs in...

A lot of pressure when you get to that stage of the build. Trust me, I know. :mrgreen:

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It's on the list.

Old spindle hardware:


New!:


Scraping crap away:


Dad's homemade prison shank:


Installed:

Headsteady installed:



Just a few pictures of how the headlight ears fit around the lower triple tree (left side needs touched up):



Probably done for the day. We got a bit done..

-Jordan

Last update of the night, I promise.

I took some pictures with the wife's high-dollar camera before I left Dad's to head home..






Tasks I know I have left:

-Paint instrument cups with semigloss black paint, install instruments and route lines
-Replace cruddy old fork nuts with nice new alloy nuts
-Replace spark plugs
-Paint Norton logo on timing cover black
-Order chrome spacers for rear turn signals, tap taillight assembly to install them
-Go to hardware store for spacers for the headlight bucket so we can install the headlight
-Clean front rim (somehow, it's disgusting even though I *thought* we already cleaned it, but... apparently not)
-Install resleeved master cylinder when it gets here. USPS says it arrived at Clubman yesterday
-Order a caliper rebuild kit and a polished blanking plate (why the hell not?!) and install when they get here
-Order parts to mount gas tank, install petcocks and run fuel lines
-Install Mikuni and figure out how in the hell to dial it in
-Reshape bottom of Corbin Gunfighter seat (cut into it, fiberglass it how it needs to be shaped, whatever it takes) and relocate mounting hardware
-Install new exhaust from CommandoSpecialties, put bronze exhaust nuts from Waldridge
-Fill all fluids and make sure everything is good to go
-RIDE THE DAMN BIKE

There may be more, but that's what I'm remembering off the top of my head. We're getting closer...

-Jordan

Man those headlight ears look good :wink:

A bit of black paint sure goes a long way towards making a bike look good. The way you did the back hub is a nice idea too.

Consider replacing the top head steady, that will do a lot to improve handling.

Jean