Rear Brake Cable Fitment Issue?

As you can see the cable doesn't fit.

The facts:

1972, 750 frame
1974, 850 gusseted swingarm
Rubber mounts are just under 1 3/8" diameter
Cable sheath just under 3/8"

I have thought about cutting a flat on the lower rubber mount or trying to find a smaller diameter brake cable, I swear that such cables were available, this cable has an AN Norton part #. I don't like cutting a flat and was wondering if adequate mounts are available in smaller diameters.

I'd be grateful for any insight members could offer.

Best.

Factory and other period photos show the brake cable passing behind the exhaust plates and not through the plates and rubber mounts.

https://www.accessnorton.com/Norton...r-brakes-feel-unsafe.26229/page-2#post-393412

The drawing in the INOA digest shows a different set of plates where the cable does not pass between the rubber mounts.

RoadScholar said:

View attachment 15206

As you can see the cable doesn't fit.

The facts:

1972, 750 frame
1974, 850 gusseted swingarm
Rubber mounts are just under 1 3/8" diameter
Cable sheath just under 3/8"

I have thought about cutting a flat on the lower rubber mount or trying to find a smaller diameter brake cable, I swear that such cables were available, this cable has an AN Norton part #. I don't like cutting a flat and was wondering if adequate mounts are available in smaller diameters.

I'd be grateful for any insight members could offer.

Best.

Click to expand...

I have read so many posts on this matter and reviewed numerous photos .... but after many attempts mine is routed exactly as your photo ... and fits perfectly
Can you take another photo with the drum/brake back plate fitted?
What also has to be remembered is that the suspension once loaded will change the angles of everything
This is why went i went through the above i disconnected the rear shocks to check that my set up worked OK without catching or making the cable angle bind it

After making the post I went back into the service bay and made some measurements and came to the conclusion that the routing in the picture, I believe, is not viable as the bike will spend a lot of time on the centerstand and the distance between the 2 rubber mounts may pose a problem for full suspension travel. The problem with routing it behind the the silencer plates is that the distance between the swingarm and the thin nylock nuts is almost non-existent. Tomorrow I'm going to start shimming the Z plate and see if I can get sufficient clearance for the cable; I'm pretty sure that will permit the cable to articulate with the swingarm without interfering with the upper thin nylock nut which I will reintroduce to the grinder as well.

By "fixing" the brake cable clearance I hope that I won't be creating an issue with the header/silencer run. There are times when I wish that the Japanese had copied the Norton Commando and not the A10 (BSA)...

Thanks for the replies!

Best.

does it have the stock footpegs? or some form of rearset. mine is routed that way but i have dunstall rearsets which screws up the pedal pull locations,

RoadScholar said:

View attachment 15206

As you can see the cable doesn't fit.

The facts:

1972, 750 frame
1974, 850 gusseted swingarm
Rubber mounts are just under 1 3/8" diameter
Cable sheath just under 3/8"

I have thought about cutting a flat on the lower rubber mount or trying to find a smaller diameter brake cable, I swear that such cables were available, this cable has an AN Norton part #. I don't like cutting a flat and was wondering if adequate mounts are available in smaller diameters.

I'd be grateful for any insight members could offer.

Best.

Click to expand...

If that's an EMGO cable, the problem may be that it's WAY too heavy duty. I bought two of them and could not use them - way to stiff. I then bought one from AN and the inner and outer were the same length but it installed without trouble.

850commando said:

does it have the stock footpegs? or some form of rearset. mine is routed that way but i have dunstall rearsets which screws up the pedal pull locations,

Click to expand...

It is being built using the OE riders foot rest mounts so the origin and termination abutments for the brake cable sheath are factory in dimension and location.

marshg246 said:

If that's an EMGO cable, the problem may be that it's WAY too heavy duty. I bought two of them and could not use them - way to stiff. I then bought one from AN and the inner and outer were the same length but it installed without trouble.

Click to expand...

The cable came out of a sealed bag with an AN label also inside, but does strike me as having a greater OD than what I remember.

I'll be working on this today and will update later. My thanks for your insights!

Best.

The cable, as LAB wrote, needs to be routed behind the silencer mounting plate. Having the skeletonized Z plate makes the routing easier on the cable, but the clearance between the swingarm and the thin nylock nuts that retain the rubber isolating mounts, even with the studs ground down to the nut is too close. The pictures were taken before I shimmed the Z plate and now this task gets a check mark. I apologize for attaching the rusty foot peg arm which came in one of the many baskets when I purchased this Norton, it is still doing it's part to help...