Norton Ressurection

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storm42

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Right, spurred on by the best improved competition I though I would do a build thread on my Commando. I hope you all like what follows.

When I was in my late teens, my mate bought a Dunstall 750 Commando and because he had one, I had to have one and I ended up with a Mk1a 850 Interstate.

I don't seem to have any pictures of it when I bought it but it went through a lot of changes and was my only form of transport for many a year. I fitted clip-ons, rear sets a 2 into 1 pipe and thrashed it mercilessly for years, became an expert at rebuilding the gearbox as that wouldn't stay together for long at all.

Anyway I have done previous restorations on it and it has been in various guises over the years, it has been a roadster and a Gus Kunn lookalike, but always money, or lack of it, has meant that any rebuild has been a bit of a compromise, I remember one incarnation in 1978 as a Roadster complete with third Isolastic under the gearbox and a rear disk conversion, I ran out of money before I got the rear disk working and ran the bike for over a year without a back brake.

The reason for the rebuild !! I visited the Bikers Classic meeting at the Spa Francochamps circuit in Begium and decided that, although it was a brilliant weekend, It looked a lot more fun on the other side of the fence. This meant that I needed a pre 1980 bike to enter with and although the Norton was in a sorry state it was duly nominated for classic parade duties.

And now to the present, The next couple of pictures are of the bike as it was in January this year.

Norton Ressurection


Norton Ressurection


I was going to seal the old Gus Kunn tank and with that in mide I cut the bottom out to make sure the job was done properly, gave up in the end as I wasn't sure if a glass tank would be allowed on the track. I bought an aluminium one.

Norton Ressurection


Norton Ressurection


I have never liked the Norton fork dust seals so I altered the seal holders to accept Harley ones.

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Norton Ressurection


I went down the twin disk route which like a lot of things for the bike created major problems. The Hub, Disks and callipers came from RGM, the fork bottoms came from Norvil.
As they are all for the same bike I didn't think there would be any fitting problems but, the calipers are Grimica copies of the old AP callipers and apparently the Novil fork bottoms are designed for the later type of AP calliper when the 12” disks are used.

Norton Ressurection


As the price difference between the the Grimica and AP callipers would heat a small town for a year, the only option for me was to machine the disks down by 5mm
Norton Ressurection


Looking at the picture of the hub and disks in the forks above, I wasn't confident that the spokes would clear the calipers but I built the wheel anyway and all fits so a bit of a result after all the trouble making the disks fit.

Norton Ressurection


I cleaned the crank cases up in the bead blaster which was well worth the £90 ($145) it cost,

Norton Ressurection


The crank was worn on the drive side journal so I had it re-ground, chromed over size and then ground to spec, I got them to radius the shaft where it joins the web as recommended by Jim Schmidt.

Norton Ressurection


As you can see, I also bought a couple of Carrillo rods off Jim. Obviously I bought the pistons too.
Quite a difference in the rod lenth.

Norton Ressurection


Norton Ressurection


They stick out of the top a bit though :)

Norton Ressurection


I had the barrels bored and the cam followers surfaced.

Norton Ressurection


Had to go for a belt drive.

Norton Ressurection


New chain and new Avon race rubber (more about that later)

Norton Ressurection


I read a thread from beginning to end by Jeandr and the rose joint links made a lot of sense to me so!!

Norton Ressurection


Norton Ressurection


Didn't have time to make one for the top so I ended up with a Norvil one.

I picked up a close box from the classic bike show which was supposed to have been built by Pete Lovel, doesn’t hurt to make sure everything is OK though. It was.

Norton Ressurection


Did some work on the rockers.

Norton Ressurection


Norton Ressurection


As you can see from the photos, I had the frame and other painted bits powder coated. But when it came to matching the paint for the tank ect to the fairing and front mudgaurd, the paint shop had trouble getting it right so I bought some pearl yellow and painted the lot. Because the seat was old and battered it was a nightmare to paint and still isn't right. I will be replacing it with a Norvil one.

I also went with the flatties that Jim sells although I wish I had waited a bit as he now has some 34mm ones. Might have to put them in the lathe. :)

Norton Ressurection


If I had written this as I did the build, there would have been a catalogue of disasters similar to the disk débâcle.

As I said at the top, the reason for the build was to enter the Bikers Classic meet, and I thought that starting in January would allow enough time for the build seeing as the meet was in July.

Well, the crank and barrels were dropped off at the engineers at the beginning of February with a promise that they would be ready at the end of Feb. When I went for them they hadn't even started work on them, anyway to cut a long story short I got them back in April.

The tank was late and when I got it, the cap would spring open at the slightest tug, I found this out by picking the tank up by the cap and it sprung open and I dropped it. :( .

Even things like the chain guard didn't fit without persuasion, I mean, how hard is it to punch holes in tin in the right place ???

The 4s cam was machined badly ie the taper in the end for the ignition rotor was out of true, this caused the Pazon Ignition to only fire on one cylinder, I found this out the day before I set off to Belgium. That along with the carbs being so rich the bike was missing badly nearly ruined the Bikers Classic meet. I cured the one cylinder thing with a rotary file in the paddock at Spa but I didn't get to the bottom of the rich mixture until I got it on the dyno the day before doing the Day of a Thousand Bike meet at Mallory.

That showed that the mix was going off the bottom of the scale at about 3000 rpm, the annoying thing was that taking the very restrictive filters off almost cured the problem, in the end I ended up 5 down in the main jet with no filters.

I would say that I do not place any blame at Jims door for that as he couldn't know about the cam or the gas flowing that I have done, also there will be a difference in atmospheric pressure between here and California.

The fairing bracket fouled the top yolk so that had to be cut.

Norton Ressurection


The list goes on and on but the memory doesn't so I will stop moaning about it. Just noticed in the pic above that I fitted the internals from John at Lansdowne engineering. This is a very worthwhile mod and John even met me at the classic bike show with only a few days notice to build them.

Top man and a top product.

The day before we went to Belgium was spent rebuilding the rear wheel with a 19” rim as with the race tyre on the 18” rim it was over an inch lower and I figured there would be ground clearance problems. There still was but that is for another day.

Norton Ressurection


The weekend at Spa was brilliant and I will be there again next year.

Wet first day.

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Norton Ressurection


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Norton Ressurection


Sorry about the poor quality from the front camera especially the sound, but it gives you an idea of what the meet was about. The bike had only done 70 miles before the event.

Norton Ressurection
 
Lovely bike, and an entertaining restoration story. Thanks for posting it.

Ken
 
I love the story you've posted. As far as jetting is concerned, I think you are regarding your bike the same way as a Japanese car. Even though you might fit all the common modifications, you cannot expect it to be correct, even if an expert is sending you all the bits. It is always up to yourself to lean it off as much a s possible, until the bike performs but doesn't destroy itself. Even the change in weather - temperature and air pressure can affect it, if it is leaned off to the max. I never use air filters like that - only the big K&N ones with the oiled plastic foam internals
 
lcrken said:
Lovely bike, and an entertaining restoration story. Thanks for posting it.

Ken

Thanks Ken.

acotrel said:
I love the story you've posted. As far as jetting is concerned, I think you are regarding your bike the same way as a Japanese car. Even though you might fit all the common modifications, you cannot expect it to be correct, even if an expert is sending you all the bits. It is always up to yourself to lean it off as much a s possible, until the bike performs but doesn't destroy itself. Even the change in weather - temperature and air pressure can affect it, if it is leaned off to the max. I never use air filters like that - only the big K&N ones with the oiled plastic foam internals

I used to work in the scuba diving industry and whilst on a course at Oceanic, I found out that Wally the reg Tech had to re-set all the interstage pressures for all the valves they imported from the States, with that in mind I wasn't too surprised when the carbs were out jet wise. I am thinking of trying to get the original filter to fit with a K&N core. I will then get the fuelling sorted but I am looking at building another 2 into 1 for ground clearance reasons and changing the cam for a PW3.

mikegray660 said:
most excellent! but you do know its yellow right?! :mrgreen:
I had noticed it is Yellow, I like solid colours, my other bike is green. they are the new black :)

Georgina (the wife) saw this thread and said she has got some old photos of the bike. The one below is her on the bike in the IOM and it is from 1978.

You can see that there is no calliper on the disk and although there is not all the bits there the bottom isolastic I fitted is there, that would have been down to lack of money but it did get finished eventually, also the 2 into 1 I mentioned is on it to.

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Norton Ressurection
 
Yellow is good. It looks like an old Suzuki racer - that must make it go faster !
 
acotrel said:
Yellow is good. It looks like an old Suzuki racer - that must make it go faster !

You mean like the one in the video at 6:38 T500 Cobra I think.
 
Very nice work. That sure is a beautiful bike; I like those rod link iso stabilizers. "TRIANGULATE"
 
Good effort..At least it is a real Norton on parade... A question though, what is the purpose of retaining the weight/drag of the stator/rotor/electrical generator set?
 
Very nice report and photos.

That's a nice mod on the fork tube dust seals. Do you have the H-D part number?
 
Really? ,He wouldn`t get too far on the road over here in that set -up, wthout being pulled over by bolshy cops eager to write up huge fines... & no lights to need the current, how much does the ignition draw, or is it a self-energising magneto?
 
J.A.W. said:
Really? ,He wouldn`t get too far on the road over here in that set -up, wthout being pulled over by bolshy cops eager to write up huge fines... & no lights to need the current, how much does the ignition draw, or is it a self-energising magneto?
Go to the "post picture of your Commando" topic to see other photos showing the lighting.

Storm42, for being a member since July of 2011, only 8 post, an entire build on one page and a yellow PR........well I gotta tell ya, I like your style. You keep good secret and come on strong when it's time.

You have become quite popular in such a short time. Thank you for sharing your stuff. It's really great.
 
J.A.W. said:
Good effort..At least it is a real Norton on parade... A question though, what is the purpose of retaining the weight/drag of the stator/rotor/electrical generator set?

grandpaul is right, they are there to charge the battery. The lights are there, taped up on the back and behind the sticker on the front.

Norton Ressurection


Bob Z. said:
Very nice report and photos.

That's a nice mod on the fork tube dust seals. Do you have the H-D part number?
I think I have got it wrong, I have had a look back through my e-bay purchases and these come up. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Showa-Fork-Du ... 3f031363fa

Harley do use the same sizes though, just google 35mm fork dust seals.

pvisseriii said:
Storm42, for being a member since July of 2011, only 8 post, an entire build on one page and a yellow PR........well I gotta tell ya, I like your style. You keep good secret and come on strong when it's time.

You have become quite popular in such a short time. Thank you for sharing your stuff. It's really great.

I have been lurking and learning :)
 
J.A.W. said:
He wouldn`t get too far on the road over here in that set -up, wthout being pulled over by bolshy cops eager to write up huge fines...

Although it has lights, it would still be legal to use on the road in the UK without lighting equipment provided that it was not used 'during the hours of darkness' or, 'at times of seriously reduced visibility'.
 
That's interesting. We have to be legal all the time, including mirrors, functioning stop and headlamps, etc. Except what has been grandfathered like turn signals. Depends on the state too.

Very nice yellow bike. I'll vote for it.

Dave
69S
 
I am flattered you copied the way I did my links, you should have posted step by step build pictures because there are many things you did no one else has done. Looks good, looks very good.

Jean
 
Very interesting and intensive obsticale over comming for sure. I'm most curious on what you might have noticed with the full linkage in regards to vibration and handling? might try running with only one link at a time to see what each does. Espeically after you gain some more lean with the new exhaust. Street bikes generally have a side or center stand, will yours? Wil be educational to see how you do that with the lean and exhaust clearanceto miss.
 
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