Seems a lot on here have different ways of doing thing on their Norton's

ashman said:
Paul your bikes look great, by the way how's the new place going ...
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I love the new place but it has a BIG problem - it is 32 miles away, about 45 minutes in typical travel. So, any "trip" to the ranch means an hour and a half of driving. So, unless I'm prepared to do AT LEAST 2 hours of work, I put it off until MORE work stacks up.

My wyfe is not the biggest fan. She joins me out there once or twice a month, or for special events like the recent eclipse. We had a fantastic vantage point with the clouds literally parting a minute or two before totality, and remaining clear until a minute or two afterwards!

Anyway, I've recently gotten 2 major issues fixed on two ZRX Kawasakis, repaired a crash-damaged Moto Guzzi for the widow of a late friend, and I'm about to finish my middle son's Ducati that sat 10 years, to sell it for him.

The pond got fuller than it has ever been, to the point of overflowing into the creek's original course, that was nice (but it starts percolating away rather quickly). Also, it FROZE OVER in February when we had 3 days in a row of sustained 19F temps. I tossed a large rock on it, and it bounced, tossed a BIG rock on it, and it cracked the ice a bit and bounced, then I heaved a small boulder on it which just broke part way thru. It was fully an inch thick!

So, my two Dreer Nortons are resting peacefully, awaiting a time which i can finally strip them down and polish them back up to their pre-storage glory. That 4 months of dank storage was one of the most expensive mistakes I've ever made...
 
marshg246 said:
So, most think my best trick is crazy!

These days I find one of the most hated Norton jobs easy - removing/installing the carbs. I absolutely remove them to change the air cleaner (leave it all in place while removing the carbs). I struggled long and hard with sawed off Allen wrenches and then started buying ball end Allens until I had the right combination. My final pair is one with a longer than normal long end and a very short, short end - both ball end. Then I have a normal one both ends ball. Between them I can always crack the screw loose and once loose I can use the longer ends to spin the first one out.

It might be hard the very first time but once the carbs are off, I ensure that the screws go in easily with t fingertips only. That way when putting them on. The timing side one is installed completely, the drive side outer screw is barely "nipped up" and the carb is wiggled until I can turn the inner one with fingertips. Once I can do that, I snug the outer, so the carb is not rubbing on the inner screw, screw it all the way with fingertips, and finally tighten.

It takes way longer to get the tank off than the carbs.

I find it difficult to fully mechanically sync the carbs on a Norton on the bike, so I remove them, stick an old handlebar in my vice. Put the throttle on it and sync them on the bench where everything is easy to see. Since I don't have chokes, it takes less than 5 minutes when the tank is off for the carbs to be on the bench being synced.
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If you use a cut off allen wrench, just remove the nut for the intake manifold. That way there's nothing in the way of turning it.
 
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