Needing help solving the most recent puzzle

nortoneer850 · May 26, 2013

Hey all, I'm at my wits end with the norton right now. I could use plenty of advice on what steps to take next. The bike ran great before the winter, I mucked about trying to put a more highway friendly countershaft sprocket in preps for a trip eventually finding my head gasket was worn out. Parked the bike for the winter and replaced the gasket a month ago, I made the mistake of leaving bad fuel in the carbs over the winter. Since this point the bike has run like dogshit.

It's a 74 850, still starts first kick. I've cleaned the carbs out with a #78 drill bit, and pulled them off for a carb cleaner soak. Checked my valve clearances swapped plugs, and been on a few short rides to see if anything has worked.

So here's the symptoms, sputters coughs and hesitates at crack of throttle to 1/4. Plugs are always extremely lean looking, if throttled wide open it runs hard on both cylinders. I dropped to the lowest needle clip and still look lean. Not sure if these other things are related but my brake light has taken to being on all the time and my clutch seems to be leaving adjust after a couple miles, I keep having to pull the cap and adjust the screw. Any advice you guys can give would be nice. I'm getting very frustrated with the nice weather out and had been expecting it to run well

Thanks

Rohan · May 26, 2013

There are at least 3 different issues there - work them through one at a time. ?

The brake light can only be the stoplight switchs - disconnect them and see if it persists. And why...

Tried a new clutch cable, first of all ??
Clutch coming loose ???

Checked your fuel taps AND float needles for adequate fuel flow ??
Tried ticking the floats, to see if the fuel height is adequate when this happnes ?

concours · May 26, 2013

nortoneer850 said:
Hey all, I'm at my wits end with the norton right now. I could use plenty of advice on what steps to take next. The bike ran great before the winter, I mucked about trying to put a more highway friendly countershaft sprocket in preps for a trip eventually finding my head gasket was worn out. Parked the bike for the winter and replaced the gasket a month ago, I made the mistake of leaving bad fuel in the carbs over the winter. Since this point the bike has run like dogshit.

It's a 74 850, still starts first kick. I've cleaned the carbs out with a #78 drill bit, and pulled them off for a carb cleaner soak. Checked my valve clearances swapped plugs, and been on a few short rides to see if anything has worked.

So here's the symptoms, sputters coughs and hesitates at crack of throttle to 1/4. Plugs are always extremely lean looking, if throttled wide open it runs hard on both cylinders. I dropped to the lowest needle clip and still look lean. Not sure if these other things are related but my brake light has taken to being on all the time and my clutch seems to be leaving adjust after a couple miles, I keep having to pull the cap and adjust the screw. Any advice you guys can give would be nice. I'm getting very frustrated with the nice weather out and had been expecting it to run well

Thanks

Sounds like your idle circuits are still plugged. Did you VERIFY FLOW with an aerosol solvent? You may have to remove the welsh plug in the body to clean there. You DID use Sta-Bil, DIDN'T YOU? :wink:

Needing help solving the most recent puzzle

nortoneer850

Rohan

concours

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