seized engine

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Hi I'm a new member looks like a great forum. I just picked up a 1969 750 Norton and the engine is seized from sitting, i was told that it has just seized in the last year, so i'm hoping it is'nt to badly seized. Any suggestions on what i can put in the cylinder to loosen it up. I had guys tell to use kerosene, deisel, WD40, AD2000, any feedback would be great. thought i'd try that before i took the head off, which i'm sure i'm going to have to do anyway. Also any suggestion on a good place to pick up parts, the bike is basicly all original and together just aftermarket throttle. I have to replace all the cables.


Thanks Rockin
 
The kind of oil is not so important. Give it time and gentle prods. Put the bike in fourth gear get it off the stands and just push it back and forth till it comes to a stop. Say once a day for two weeks with another squirt of oil down the plug holes once in three days or so. You might want to drain the oil out from the motor all the tank oil is likely to be down there. This can make it hard to turn over when the time comes. I have seen bikes come back from this and run.
 
Thanks for the tip I'll do that I'm not in any hurry as i have another bike, this one came along at a steal of a price ,at 400.00 dollars i could'nt loose. The first thing i did was drain the old oil out of it .

Thanks for the handy hint
rockin
 
Hi
I would be inclined to use diesel – its powers of penetration are really excellent.
I have a lot of experience in the field of old car restoration and my advice to you would be to free off the engine and then to take off the head and barrels before you attempt to start the engine to make sure there aren’t any broken rings in there.
A set of gaskets is one hell of a lot cheaper than scrap barrels caused by broken rings!!
In fact it would make sense to make sure that the bores are still in spec and if so have them lightly honed and fit a new set of rings at the same time.
I would also strongly recommend that you clean the crank case gauze filter; if you find any “shrapnel” in there it would be a good idea to do a full engine strip.
Also make sure you clean out the oil tank and its filter and in the interest of engine longevity it would pay you to fit an in line cartridge filter kit.
That’s my two cents worth anyway.
As far as spares are concerned I don’t know about Canada but Andover Norton in England ship spares all over the world as do Norvil motorcycles.
Here’s the links:
http://www.bsa-regal.co.uk/
http://www.norvilmotorcycle.co.uk/
I hope this helps.
Good luck with the bike and let us know how you get on.
 
British/Italian MCs in Vancouver has a good stock of Norton parts and the owner is very knowledgable about Commandos. Prices there are high though. If it is a sizable order I get it from the UK, usually from Norvil.
The parts generally show up in my mailbox about one week from order date.

45 years ago my father brought home a siezed up 1947 John Deere Model M tractor. I was 7 years old at the time and remember how exciting it was spending the weekend working on the old thing to free it up. We used regular motor oil. After 2 days of gently rocking it back and forth we had it running and it has run ever since. It has done thousands of hours, much of it very abusive (I rolled this tractor once then later ran it into a tree in fourth gear) but still runs perfectly, I use it regularly.

The only major engine work done on it since 1962 was a valve grind we did prior to using the tractor to power a pto generator used for house construction. This job alone had the machine run for a period of four months steady use (10 hrs/day, 7 days/week)
MCs turn a lot faster and are not built as sturdily as an old John Deere, but you may be as lucky as we were.
 
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