- Joined
- Sep 20, 2016
- Messages
- 28
I recently bought a '74 850 Roadster to replace the '74 850 Roadster I'd owned for 25 years, that I regrettably sold about a dozen or so years ago. The original bike was trouble free and reliable year after year, and even pretty close to oil tight. It hardly even tended to "wet sump" which I now realise is unusual.
The post I made, with photos and the list of items attended to by the seller is on this page:
pictures-your-norton-commandos-t6210-1215.html#p341634
Well, I managed to ride the new bike for about 100 miles before giving up, and starting a tear down:
* It left great clouds of grey smoke under any throttle opening and the silencers were dripping with oil.
* The head/barrel join started to blow through on the left side, spraying the front of the (corroded and just over-sprayed) air cleaner housing with oil, and dripping oil down onto the primary case.
* The left side exhaust rattled off at the head port within 50 miles. The right side wasn't far behind.
* The clutch started to slip. (The primary case turned out to be way over-filled. I drained it to the level plug, but there was a decent drip from the front of the case anyway, so it presumably would have "auto-corrected" at least for a while if I just left it!) It dripped too, come to think of it, from the sump plug too. (A new copper washer, along with one of those magnetic type plugs with the smaller inner bolts sorted that problem).
* The timing inspection cap in the primary case and a few other fixtures disappeared within 30 miles.
* The "rebuilt" forks graunched loudly on compression over even slowly taken speed humps, and road bumps. The left fork leg has started to weep too.
* The speedometer flickered wildly at around 40mph, between say 20 and 60. The tachometer seemed to lag.
* The side stand disappeared under the frame, despite a new bump stop, and had to be retrieved by hand (when the return spring then fouled the mounting bolt). The end 3" of the stand was actually snapped off, but the bike seemed to lean over an awfully long way when on the side stand.
* The battery is secured with a single cable tie. Rubber tray, bracket and straps presumably long gone.
* No horn or related wiring.
* An endless list of corroded fittings, either just sprayed over the top of the unprepared corroded part (like the air cleaner parts and the license plate fixture), or just there, cough, cough, "un-restored" and looking ugly.
I'll try to load up some photos showing some of the things I've found so far. (More to come, I'm sure!):
- The inside of the "rebuilt" cylinder head,
- The primary case O-ring and the damaged front of the inner primary case (the photo was taken after a light dressing with a flat file).
- The side stand and frame tube at the mounting. The frame is actually kinked. It's why the bike leans over so far. I'm guessing either someone rode off with the stand down (hence the broken off toe extension too) or tried clumsily to start the bike on the side stand and the whole thing (bike + clutz of a "rider") toppled over.
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The post I made, with photos and the list of items attended to by the seller is on this page:
pictures-your-norton-commandos-t6210-1215.html#p341634
Well, I managed to ride the new bike for about 100 miles before giving up, and starting a tear down:
* It left great clouds of grey smoke under any throttle opening and the silencers were dripping with oil.
* The head/barrel join started to blow through on the left side, spraying the front of the (corroded and just over-sprayed) air cleaner housing with oil, and dripping oil down onto the primary case.
* The left side exhaust rattled off at the head port within 50 miles. The right side wasn't far behind.
* The clutch started to slip. (The primary case turned out to be way over-filled. I drained it to the level plug, but there was a decent drip from the front of the case anyway, so it presumably would have "auto-corrected" at least for a while if I just left it!) It dripped too, come to think of it, from the sump plug too. (A new copper washer, along with one of those magnetic type plugs with the smaller inner bolts sorted that problem).
* The timing inspection cap in the primary case and a few other fixtures disappeared within 30 miles.
* The "rebuilt" forks graunched loudly on compression over even slowly taken speed humps, and road bumps. The left fork leg has started to weep too.
* The speedometer flickered wildly at around 40mph, between say 20 and 60. The tachometer seemed to lag.
* The side stand disappeared under the frame, despite a new bump stop, and had to be retrieved by hand (when the return spring then fouled the mounting bolt). The end 3" of the stand was actually snapped off, but the bike seemed to lean over an awfully long way when on the side stand.
* The battery is secured with a single cable tie. Rubber tray, bracket and straps presumably long gone.
* No horn or related wiring.
* An endless list of corroded fittings, either just sprayed over the top of the unprepared corroded part (like the air cleaner parts and the license plate fixture), or just there, cough, cough, "un-restored" and looking ugly.
I'll try to load up some photos showing some of the things I've found so far. (More to come, I'm sure!):
- The inside of the "rebuilt" cylinder head,
- The primary case O-ring and the damaged front of the inner primary case (the photo was taken after a light dressing with a flat file).
- The side stand and frame tube at the mounting. The frame is actually kinked. It's why the bike leans over so far. I'm guessing either someone rode off with the stand down (hence the broken off toe extension too) or tried clumsily to start the bike on the side stand and the whole thing (bike + clutz of a "rider") toppled over.
