The Anti-Cafe Project

I did some more work on the 850 recently, painting the sidepanels and fixing a huge oil leak. The leak turned out to be from the oil junction block. The fixing bold is an odd length, 7/8". DPO had fitted a 1 inch long bolt and it bottomed out without quite securing the block. The oil just poured out. It's dry now though. Amazing how much trouble 1/8 of an inch can cause.

I painted the sidepanels with Duplicolor rattlecan paint in base coat and clear coat. It matches the tank perfectly, but isn't quite as glossy. Another 14 coats of clear :roll: and some sanding and buffing would probably fix that, but I think it's good enough for now.

I had the bike out for it's first run away from home today. It runs great! Soon it will be ready for the second head retorquing and first oil change. I also need to get the alternator fitted and finish up the wiring. I'm still running total loss. But it's a rider!

And now, the photos! I hope they're not too big. I sized the 'after' pics to 800x600. Looks good on my monitor.

Here's a before pic, as it looked when I bought it:



And here's how it looks now:



Finally, a photo of my two Nortons together:





Debby

what mufflers are on the silver?

Great job! That's absolutely beautiful.

GavinJuice said:

what mufflers are on the silver?

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Those are EMGO Dunstall replicas. I thought I'd try something different than the usual peashooters. I like them - they look good and sound good. The price was right, too.

I had genuine Dunstall mufflers on my first 850, back in the day. The OEM mufflers rusted out after just a few years. I bought the Dunstalls because they were a lot less expensive than OEM replacements. They were louder than these EMGOs. They sounded great!

Debby

Nice. Whose fab job is that on the Nissin caliper adapter? Looks like a (God forbid) HD disc on that silver bike...

Nice Work Debby!! Good looking bike.

Nicely done Debby!

And it was neat to see Chugley in the "before" photo; I keep trying to tell myself the RE would make a good commuter, but I'm afraind it's too small for me.

Very, very clean. Congrats.

Yes, do tell... the brakes... They're cleaner looking than the Lockheed lump that's for sure.

The brake uses a Nissin four piston caliper from a Honda CBR600F4. The rotor is indeed from a Harley. You can buy these parts dirt cheap from people who are upgrading. The 850 has an OEM Harley rotor and the 750 has an aftermarket rotor. Floating rotors are available and would be a nice upgrade, but I'm pleased with the brakes as they are.

You can use any 13 mm master cylinder. I have a Brembo from a single-disk Ducati Monster on the 850, and a Nissin from a Honda CBR600F2 on the 750. On the earlier CBR's Honda used a 13 mm master cylinder even though it was a dual disk brake. They changed that starting with (I think) the F4 series. Good used master cylinders are getting hard to find - usually they have crash damage - but new Brembos are available.

The rotor carrier and caliper mount were made by one of the guys in our club. He has access to CNC mills at his work. The originals were basically made by hand to fit his bike though, and I had to do a bit of fettling to make them fit my bikes. Norton's manufacturing tolerances were not all that precise.

Debby

Very nice, indeed.

I've got Tokiko calipers on the Kwakky dual-disc front end that's going on my one-of-a-kind 880 Norton, coupled with a Nissin master cylinder. Should be a decent stopper!

That Nissin caliper adaptation is absolutely clean.

grandpaul said:

Very nice, indeed.

I've got Tokiko calipers on the Kwakky dual-disc front end that's going on my one-of-a-kind 880 Norton, coupled with a Nissin master cylinder. Should be a decent stopper!

That Nissin caliper adaptation is absolutely clean.

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I'm using a similar set up on a Triumph chop I'm building but will go with Tokico and of course, cheap, used HD rotors and front forks.

Nice work Debby!!!!

Nice work Debby.
So how many 'cranky' old Brits do you have now?

:lol: Just these, Mike. I sold the Chugster a while ago.

Two cranky old Brits is enough! :wink:

Debby

Debby it looks like you are using twin amals on both machines with K&N filters?
Have they given you any problems and if so what was the fix?

The Amals work great when properly sorted and deliver excellent fuel mileage as well. I get 50 - 55 mpg on my 750. There are a number of things you have to pay attention to however.

Off the top of my head:

Slides and bodies wear quickly since they're both made of the same pot metal. A symptom is inconsistent idling from excess air leakage around the slides. Getting the carbs sleeved solves that. I had my 750's carbs sleeved by Bruce Chessell in Canada. He does great work. The 850's carbs have not been sleeved yet but the slides are worn so I'll probably get it done this winter.

If you tighten the flange nuts too hard you can warp the bodies. The slides will then stick at full throttle. With care you can squeeze the bodies back into shape using a large pair of pliers and a shop rag to protect the body. You can also warp the flange and cause an air leak.

Needle jets wear out in about 10K miles from the needles rattling around inside them. The bike will become too rich in the midrange and you won't be able to tune it out. Solution is new needle jets.

You can warp the float bowls by tightening the screws too hard. You can lap the gasket surface on a glass plate to fix that.

Some of the pattern float bowl gaskets interfere with the float, causing it to stick. Inspect and trim as required when fitting new gaskets.

If your carbs have the old nylon float needles replace them with the Viton tipped ones. The nylon ones don't seal very well, causing flooding and poor idling.

The pilot bush drilling clogs easily with fuel varnish and deposits. You can clean it with a number 78 drill bit, inserted through the air screw passage. Be careful! Getting the pilot circuits clean is essential for a good idle.

Lots of info has been posted here on all of this and more. Some searches should keep you busy for quite a while.

Some people prefer fitting a Miluni kit to avoid dealing with these things. The Mikuni is a higher quality carb but they have their issues too. My one experience with a Mikuni kit on my old 850 was not good. In retrospect I think it came jetted for a 750 not an 850, but I didn't realize that at the time.

Debby

Thanks for the reply. I will persevere with my amals which have not had a great deal of use. The slides are not worn excessively. I am thinking of replacing them with brass ones. Not sure if they would slide straight in or need carefull honing of the bores to get the tolerance right?

Hi Deb. Nice bike! Hope that we can see it at Jims' Breakfast this coming Sunday. I hope to hear those "decible silencers!" You have also described all of the reasons why I have chucked Amals at first opportunity. I do miss the top speed though.
Mike

It does sound like a lot of bother when it's all listed out doesn't it? It's not really as bad as it sounds though.

Mike - yes, thought I'd ride the 850 Sunday. I might want to plug in the battery charger while I'm there, just to be safe. A freshly-charged battery should last long enough for the round trip but it doesn't hurt to play it safe.

TO DO: finish the wiring! And de-rub the alternator.

Debby