Need a tool?

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oldmikew said:
sounds like you need a crows foot socket
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There just isn't room to engage the hex with any meaningful part of a wrench, crow's foot, open end or box. I'm hoping that the 12 point 3/8-26 nut that I purchased earlier today will give me the room to apply some torque.
 
I use a short (4" long) Blue Point ring spanner, to which I had welded a 9/16" nut on the end opposite to the target nut size. Then, using a 9/16" socket with my torque wrench at 90 deg (no correction necessary), I am able to get enough arc to easily torque the nut.

Slick
 
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texasSlick said:
I use a short (4" long) Blue Point ring spanner, to which I had welded a 9/16" nut on the end opposite to the target nut size. Then, using a 9/16" socket with my torque wrench at 90 deg (no correction necessary), I am able to get enough arc to easily torque the nut.

Slick
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Interesting. I never thought about it until I read your post, but couldn't you run a short bolt through the box end opposite of wrench end on the bolt, cinch the bolt with two nuts, with one nut in the wrench, and then put the torque wrench on the bolt end, at the requisite 90 degrees?


The only thing I don't like about the CNW stuff is that it makes all the Whitworth tools I've saved and searched for over the years superfluous!!


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hobot said:
This might help.

https://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mhmZ7p597a8U_JvWwgj4Mig.jpg
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Thanks, I believe that you had pointed me to this tool in an earlier part of this thread. But, there just isn't enough room to get the "S" wrench, or any other on the hex. I firmly believe that the barrel has an anomaly.

Fortunately I have two options: 1) Hope that the 12 point 3/8-26 nut that I found will quickly solve my fastening issue, or 2) pull the barrel and hog out the space that the nut rotates in.
 
RoadScholar said:
Thanks, I believe that you had pointed me to this tool in an earlier part of this thread. But, there just isn't enough room to get the "S" wrench, or any other on the hex. I firmly believe that the barrel has an anomaly.

Fortunately I have two options: 1) Hope that the 12 point 3/8-26 nut that I found will quickly solve my fastening issue, or 2) pull the barrel and hog out the space that the nut rotates in.
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Perhaps a Dremel tool would make the job possible, without having to pull the barrel.




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Robert_Norton said:
Perhaps a Dremel tool would make the job possible, without having to pull the barrel..
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It's a possibility, but the stud occupies a good portion of the available space, the cast iron is pretty thick in there, and I'd need to get behind the stud; it's got to be similar to dentistry. If I get to the stage where I have to enlarge the cavity the nut lives in I'm going to remove the barrel, take it somewhere where the metallic dust I generate won't poison any of the other projects in my shop, and have at it.
 
@Robert_Norton

Yes! Your idea would have saved me the other end of the spanner to use elsewhere!

I do not mind permanently altering a tool. It becomes a "special", and therefore more valuable.

Slick
 
I may not comprehend the hang up but hope you solve it by a special tool or failure of brutal metal removal. Glad its not me this case, so semi-enjoying learning from your cliff hanger saga. Special more valuable tool to you implies ruined shade tree bodge to others : )
 
The 12 point nut did not offer any additional room to swing a wrench, so the cylinder comes off and will be machined.
 
Mr. Rick said:
Ouch!
This was an Andover part? Have you contacted the supplier?
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Yes and yes. I inquired about the availability of a small hex, or small head 12 point fastener for the tight space. Joe wrote me saying that there was plenty of meat on the cylinder and that it's integrity wouldn't be compromised by removing material in the space surrounding the inaccessible fastener.

It's times like these, and there are more than a few, that I identify with Sisyphus...
 
RoadScholar said:
Yes and yes. I inquired about the availability of a small hex, or small head 12 point fastener for the tight space. Joe wrote me saying that there was plenty of meat on the cylinder and that it's integrity wouldn't be compromised by removing material in the space surrounding the inaccessible fastener.

It's times like these, and there are more than a few, that I identify with Sisyphus...
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Getting hold of Whitworth crows foot might be difficult, but if you took an open ended spanner i thinkits 3/8 grind off its flanks so it can move further within the barrel recess - its only got to torque 25 ft lbs so you can be radical ,then shorten the spanner to about 3or4inches... Find an old largish cheapo socket and cut a slot in it to take the shortened spanner arm , blolb of weld to keep it in place and you now have a crows foot .Surely quicker and easier than taking the barrel off
 
Fast Eddie said:
Did Joe offer any insight in to what the root cause of your issue might be?
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Joe wrote that the barrel is a work-in-progress and that they are endeavoring to address any issues and thanked me for pointing out this anomaly. It isn't clear to me whether my barrel represents an error in the casting process or a precision mistake. I'm happy to have the part, and with virtually all things Norton, some fitting is usually required. The fix is far from rocket science, just another pain in the back side on the road to the road, so to speak.

oldmikew said:
Getting hold of Whitworth crows foot might be difficult, but if you took an open ended spanner i thinkits 3/8 grind off its flanks so it can move further within the barrel recess - its only got to torque 25 ft lbs so you can be radical ,then shorten the spanner to about 3or4inches... Find an old largish cheapo socket and cut a slot in it to take the shortened spanner arm , blolb of weld to keep it in place and you now have a crows foot .Surely quicker and easier than taking the barrel off
Click to expand...

I appreciate your reply, but as I mentioned earlier there just isn't enough room to engage the nut. If I ground down a wrench so that it would (possibly) engage the hex it wouldn't have enough "beef" to apply effective torque. There is less than 1/16" clearance on the port and starboard side of the nut, something less forward. Once I get the barrel off and stripped a vertical miller will make short work of the excess casting.
 
RoadScholar said:
I have pretty much finished the assembly of a '73 750 engine where I have one of the new AN 850 style barrels; all was going good until I got to the rear 3/8-26 nut that fits up near the carbs. I couldn't find a tool that would grab it; there isn't enough room to fit a wrench and not enough depth to mount a socket.

I could see making a tool by cutting down a socket, boxing the non-business end and welding a handle to the socket, but I have some time and would prefer to purchase an existing tool.

I figure that there must be some number of individuals in this forum that have installed the new AN barrel to their 750s, if so what did you do to tighten this pesky fastener?
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well after all that; how can the "NEW" AN barrel be so different to the ones we've been using for the last 40+ yrs. it seems all the good advice in this forum does not apply when the apples turn out to be oranges... i'll bet every suggestion works, just not on the "NEW" barrel.

Bill; how about a picture ?
 
RoadScholar said:
I have pretty much finished the assembly of a '73 750 engine where I have one of the new AN 850 style barrels; all was going good until I got to the rear 3/8-26 nut that fits up near the carbs. I couldn't find a tool that would grab it; there isn't enough room to fit a wrench and not enough depth to mount a socket.

I could see making a tool by cutting down a socket, boxing the non-business end and welding a handle to the socket, but I have some time and would prefer to purchase an existing tool.

I figure that there must be some number of individuals in this forum that have installed the new AN barrel to their 750s, if so what did you do to tighten this pesky fastener?
Click to expand...

The need for a special thinned-down spanner/wrench to fit the #2 nut (1/4 Whitworth size) hexagon has been mentioned countless times in the past so it certainly doesn't just apply to recent AN barrels although it would be an easy job for them to have corrected the problem by grinding a little more clearance in the area surrounding the nut.
 
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Visually checked the Blue Point 1/4 Whitworth wrenches I spoke of earlier in this thread, and from the factory the sidewall at the end of the thinnest wrench of the bunch, is about the thickness of U.S. dime.


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