Norton 650 Dominator tachometer bracket details...

This is an optional tachometer and bracket for the 62'-63' Norton 88ss and 650ss bikes that I stole on Ebay recently. It has it's original hardware and grommets which are the really hard things to find. The bolts are hollow and threaded inside to go over the studs on the back of the tach and are drilled and safety wired at the factory. Two of the grommets are stepped to fit into holes and capture the bracket with no metal to metal contact at all.

A similar bracket was put on the 61' American spec Manxman and optional for other bikes that year, but it did not have the cutaway for a lighted rc1309 tach. The earlier bikes I have seen with non-lighted tachs have a rc1302 tach on them.

The brackets pop up for sale now and then, but the special satin-chromed bolts, washers and the grommets are just about impossible to find on demand unless you want to make them.

Funny how a handful of bolts and washers and grommets can be absolutely boring and useless to the entire world population except for two or three people. Mine and Jack's wives would throw them out the window along with the magic beans....

I know this is an older post, but I'm looking for one of these bracket set ups, if anyone has one to sell.
Thanks
Jeff

Well, since they stopped fitting chronometric clocks in about, the 1960s (except to special order, i.e.
Chronometric speedos for police bikes)

Bernhard,
I wasn't sure if there was another section of your post. Are you thinking that since they stopped fitting Chronometric tachs back in the 60's that there aren't any of these available? I know that they're rare, but surely there must be some out there. I see Chronometric gauges for sale on ebay almost every day. I figured somebody out there has to have one of these brackets laying around. Just thought it was worth asking, as I'd like to have one for a project of mine.
Thanks
Jeff

We would suspect that these are a fairly rare bit 'o 'kit - since early 60s featherbeds are none too common, and the optional tach is somewhat uncommon among them.
Which is probably why Ben showed it, since few are likely to get to see one otherwise.

Nothing there that couldn't be fabbed up by someone, but you'd think that one of the Norton shops could have some of the bits available as a kit ?
Be worth trying someone like Walridge or RGM, just on the off chance... ?
Andover will have a batch of stuff made up, if it is seen there is a demand ?

I agree, Dominator parts are very hard to find. They're the Nortons that I'm most interested in, and I have a very difficult time finding parts. Even here on the forum, I've struck out on basically every Dominator part I've posted a want ad for. Other than the fact that I love the Dominator models, I'm also quite fond of the rare bits, which is part of the reason I posted about being interested in finding one of those tach brackets. I always envision that some guys out there have garages full of this stuff, and they either don't want to sell any of it, or perhaps they're not even on the internet to even see the potential buyers.

Either way, Beng's photo resparked me to ask if anyone here had one that they'd like to see put back onto a bike.
But for now, my hunt will continue.

I have two of these brackets, one for the tach, and one I have modified to mount a chronometric speedo.

FYI....it appears that two different manufacturers were involved in their making. The bend angle at the top nut is slightly different between the two, and one has been bent on a brake, the other appears to have been formed in a die.

these are presently off my Atlas, waiting to go to powder coat shop. If anyone has an inclination to fab one up, I am willing to photocopy the tach unit and snail mail it, thus you can fab it to exact profile. PM me if I can help.

Slick

Can you perhaps photo it / them and post it here. (And keep the photocopy in the filing system, great idea)
With the chrono not fitted to it, we get a view of it unmounted, to compliment Bens view of them.
Preserved here for posterity, as it were...

Rohan said:

Can you perhaps photo it / them and post it here. (And keep the photocopy in the filing system, great idea)
With the chrono not fitted to it, we get a view of it unmounted, to compliment Bens view of them.
Preserved here for posterity, as it were...

Click to expand...

I had difficulty photocopying because the offset in the bracket would not allow me to get a planar image.

I pencil traced the profile and made the attached sketch. In the sketch, the bracket part which mounts under the top nut has been rotated to be in the same plane as the part where the instrument mounts. If one adjusts the size to make the 2.50 dimension actually 2.5 inches, then the image will be a template that can be used to make both the instrument mounting surface and the nut mounting surface profiles.
The note cut-off at the lower right should read THIS SURFACE HAS BEEN ROTATED 30 DEG. AND IS TRUE TEMPLATE

I hope this helps anyone wanting to fab one up.

BTW...this bracket profile is for chronometric instruments....a magnetic will not be compatible.

Slick

You can buy the correct pre 64 chronometric tacho bracket for a 650 SS from Norvil for 33 GBP with the rubber mounting bushes and nuts. Its Part No 013243A

Alternatively you can buy Part No 013243 which is the bracket only for 23 GBP.

I have one of theirs on my 62 650 SS and it fits perfectly.