- Joined
- Apr 21, 2015
- Messages
- 322
......or KWOLYTI Control as I often addressed my reports during my working life in the British defence industry......it was a dig at the company having no quality control worth speaking about ......
Barrels were on occasion manufactured and fitted with the top face not parallel with the base flange and sometimes with bores not parallel to each other. For example I once took a only very slightly worn 88 barrel and shoved it on a set of minus rings pistons to check things....one piston would move a few though in all directions but the other sould not....thinking bent rods I changed the rods over which had no effect....then I checked the distance between the bores top and bottom and found 5 thou difference. One bore was not parallel with the other and talking to friends with many decades of Norton experience I was told this was not unknown.....
Now some people when boring Norton barrels clamp them down on their top face...its easier than sorting out a few perfectly matched spacers to hold then down on their base flange.....trouble is that if the top flange is not parallel with the base flange then the new bores are not correct with respect to the crank......One friend when rebuilding motors for customers always checks the barrel has been correctly machined initially / rebored but I dioubt many other so called experts do so..... A few minutes ago I learnt that some people bore barrels with el cheapo boring machines that fit on to the top face so if the top face is incorrect......
As for some of the piston and ring sets available these days I thank the gods I have genuine ones in stock. The tales I hear from friends in the trade...... ever seen for example those CRAPPY ******* Commandeo clutch friction plates made in some back street shed somewhere in either India or China for example?? Not only are they semi flexible but the teeth come no where near fitting the involute spline on the clutch centre (a rare CORRECTLY splined one that is!!) but the shear strength of the friction material is around 2,000 lb per sq inch while the original Don 112 solid asbestos based ones had a shear strength of 9,000 lb per sq inch. Wonder how long theteeth stay on the plates in use??? Apparently one major Norton dealer upon being shown a set instantly banned then from his shop! I should add I still have one still in its original ******* packaging. A certain University Mech Eng Dept did the shear testing for me and e mailed me the graph showing the results.....No point in having frioends in charge of such establishments if you donr get them to do something more useful than turning out lots of 20 odd year old know less than nothing BSc graduates who dont even know what a chick key looks like or how to use it..... Comment heard for many years now ...'We will be lucky if we turn out one real Engineer from this years student intake'. One Triumph owning friend for example who would rebuild engines and gearboxes for people sold everything Meriden a few years ago simply because he was totally fed up having to modify many new parts so they fitted correctly. He now owns a couple of modern Triumph 'battle tank's...and I laugh as I hear then leave my house as there is an audable CLONK from the gearbox as he drives away changing gear......than the gods my car clutch works correctly!! Apparently the clonk goes away as things heat up.... I assume they included a tad of Triumph clutch drag to satisfy the ex Meriden Triumph owners! Wonder if rocker covers come off as one goes down the road?? One road tester reported something like ..' I was quickly reminded I was riding a Triumph as a rocker cover overtook me........' another said ...' As with the last Triumph tesated it was possible to start the engine with the clutch lever back to the bar.........' Some road tests, NOT MANY mind you, told the truth.
Barrels were on occasion manufactured and fitted with the top face not parallel with the base flange and sometimes with bores not parallel to each other. For example I once took a only very slightly worn 88 barrel and shoved it on a set of minus rings pistons to check things....one piston would move a few though in all directions but the other sould not....thinking bent rods I changed the rods over which had no effect....then I checked the distance between the bores top and bottom and found 5 thou difference. One bore was not parallel with the other and talking to friends with many decades of Norton experience I was told this was not unknown.....
Now some people when boring Norton barrels clamp them down on their top face...its easier than sorting out a few perfectly matched spacers to hold then down on their base flange.....trouble is that if the top flange is not parallel with the base flange then the new bores are not correct with respect to the crank......One friend when rebuilding motors for customers always checks the barrel has been correctly machined initially / rebored but I dioubt many other so called experts do so..... A few minutes ago I learnt that some people bore barrels with el cheapo boring machines that fit on to the top face so if the top face is incorrect......
As for some of the piston and ring sets available these days I thank the gods I have genuine ones in stock. The tales I hear from friends in the trade...... ever seen for example those CRAPPY ******* Commandeo clutch friction plates made in some back street shed somewhere in either India or China for example?? Not only are they semi flexible but the teeth come no where near fitting the involute spline on the clutch centre (a rare CORRECTLY splined one that is!!) but the shear strength of the friction material is around 2,000 lb per sq inch while the original Don 112 solid asbestos based ones had a shear strength of 9,000 lb per sq inch. Wonder how long theteeth stay on the plates in use??? Apparently one major Norton dealer upon being shown a set instantly banned then from his shop! I should add I still have one still in its original ******* packaging. A certain University Mech Eng Dept did the shear testing for me and e mailed me the graph showing the results.....No point in having frioends in charge of such establishments if you donr get them to do something more useful than turning out lots of 20 odd year old know less than nothing BSc graduates who dont even know what a chick key looks like or how to use it..... Comment heard for many years now ...'We will be lucky if we turn out one real Engineer from this years student intake'. One Triumph owning friend for example who would rebuild engines and gearboxes for people sold everything Meriden a few years ago simply because he was totally fed up having to modify many new parts so they fitted correctly. He now owns a couple of modern Triumph 'battle tank's...and I laugh as I hear then leave my house as there is an audable CLONK from the gearbox as he drives away changing gear......than the gods my car clutch works correctly!! Apparently the clonk goes away as things heat up.... I assume they included a tad of Triumph clutch drag to satisfy the ex Meriden Triumph owners! Wonder if rocker covers come off as one goes down the road?? One road tester reported something like ..' I was quickly reminded I was riding a Triumph as a rocker cover overtook me........' another said ...' As with the last Triumph tesated it was possible to start the engine with the clutch lever back to the bar.........' Some road tests, NOT MANY mind you, told the truth.