The Hardest bit was.....?

Ok.I hope this "new Topic" will help the "Lesser" skilled to take on a home rebuild.
My question is "What would you seasoned " spanner men consider the Hardest bit when doing a ground up rebuild? I get the impression from some guys the task is either to hard,or is it just Time?
Me personally ,the hardest part is just remembering where i put the correct nuts and bolts!..there is no Better feeling when the bike is re-started and ridden..and the more thats done by your self the greater the feeling of pride...from my first BSA Rocket to a Vincent twin the memory of going to work and showing off at dinner time ..well its just price less.
I hope the feed back to this post will help budding re-builders the have a go..my advise is take plenty of photos as you strip the bike..these will help when re-fitting wiring and cable routing.

My advice when stripping the bike is to put all bolts,nuts and washers, plus anything else that will fit, into a zip lock bag, with a label that identifies the major sub- assembly from whence came those parts.

After that, I quote from someone on this Forum who posted..."patience is the best tool in your box"

Slick

john robert bould said:

Ok.I hope this "new Topic" will help the "Lesser" skilled to take on a home rebuild.
My question is "What would you seasoned " spanner men consider the Hardest bit when doing a ground up rebuild? I get the impression from some guys the task is either to hard,or is it just Time?
Me personally ,the hardest part is just remembering where i put the correct nuts and bolts!..there is no Better feeling when the bike is re-started and ridden..and the more thats done by your self the greater the feeling of pride...from my first BSA Rocket to a Vincent twin the memory of going to work and showing off at dinner time ..well its just price less.
I hope the feed back to this post will help budding re-builders the have a go..my advise is take plenty of photos as you strip the bike..these will help when re-fitting wiring and cable routing.

Click to expand...

For me the hardest part is finding where the cash comes from :shock: Seems like no matter what I budget it always takes twice as much.

My biggest problem is time......or lack of it, to spend on wrenching (9-5 job and 6 young kids). Second would be money, third problem is space (no garage to work from or store tools--current project it making a small wooden stand for my new bench vise which will fit on top of the kids picnic table out by the front gate to the house).

MikeG said:

john robert bould said:

Ok.I hope this "new Topic" will help the "Lesser" skilled to take on a home rebuild.
My question is "What would you seasoned " spanner men consider the Hardest bit when doing a ground up rebuild? I get the impression from some guys the task is either to hard,or is it just Time?
Me personally ,the hardest part is just remembering where i put the correct nuts and bolts!..there is no Better feeling when the bike is re-started and ridden..and the more thats done by your self the greater the feeling of pride...from my first BSA Rocket to a Vincent twin the memory of going to work and showing off at dinner time ..well its just price less.
I hope the feed back to this post will help budding re-builders the have a go..my advise is take plenty of photos as you strip the bike..these will help when re-fitting wiring and cable routing.

Click to expand...

For me the hardest part is finding where the cash comes from :shock: Seems like no matter what I budget it always takes twice as much.

Click to expand...

Just think of it as an airplane without wings...

concours said:

MikeG said:

john robert bould said:

Ok.I hope this "new Topic" will help the "Lesser" skilled to take on a home rebuild.
My question is "What would you seasoned " spanner men consider the Hardest bit when doing a ground up rebuild? I get the impression from some guys the task is either to hard,or is it just Time?
Me personally ,the hardest part is just remembering where i put the correct nuts and bolts!..there is no Better feeling when the bike is re-started and ridden..and the more thats done by your self the greater the feeling of pride...from my first BSA Rocket to a Vincent twin the memory of going to work and showing off at dinner time ..well its just price less.
I hope the feed back to this post will help budding re-builders the have a go..my advise is take plenty of photos as you strip the bike..these will help when re-fitting wiring and cable routing.

Click to expand...

For me the hardest part is finding where the cash comes from :shock: Seems like no matter what I budget it always takes twice as much.

Click to expand...

Just think of it as an airplane without wings...

Click to expand...

/
1000000rpm sideways wheelies?

1. Deciding to take on a Commando clunker, 2. which version clunker to devote too. 3. dealing with wife and family you'll be stealing time, money, attention from. 4. which oil or fluid to believe in. 5. what fork upgrade. 6. what to do about wet sump or not. 7. welding or JBW decidion sealing fractures and filling in worn bores. 8. keeping it really all Norton or jumping fence away from factory issued Commando. 9. bent crank with torque distorted cases to bind fixed tight on locating dowels. 10. fused as one caliepr cap and pucks. 11. swing arm spindle with worn lips over lapping each other so impossible to free w/o destructive methods. 12. bent frame that springs skewed on dissassemblly so impossible to reassemble. 13. relacing rims 1st time with wrong parts sent so have to convence very famous wheel supplier they gooffed up instead of a know nothing novice. 14. sheared off fasterners inside alloy or dissovled alloy theads recovery. 15. electronic ignitions that every component and clearance function tests perfectly but no fire no matter what part switched out and factory tested fine. 17. balancing spinal compression producing distal pains or numb fatgue vs flack from forum on height of handle bars. 18. figuring out transmission sourness. 19. disbelief of rump rod allowing more G's spike black out thrills than soar planes, WWII fighter planes and crop duster helicopter pilot showing off in mountians passes and ravines... 20. recovering major deadly injuries no fault of your own but butt in saddle aways from home.

Based on experience here is my take on the hardest part (no specific order);
1. Time - do you have a job and family? (kids and wife need your time too). In the nice weather would you rather be working on your resto bike or riding your other bike (we all have a runner don't we?)
2. Money - Can do all of the work yourself (takes time) or can you afford to send the work out (takes money). Norton parts (takes more money) are cheaper than Harley parts but still aren't cheap.
3. Space - Do you want to park your car in the driveway, especially true for us people in the snow belt

When your other commitments get to be to much the resto is the first thing to suffer, it sits, gets buried by boxes, other projects, etc and it sits for years. You promise yourself that you will work on it tomorrow but tomorrow never comes and another basket case is created.

I took my Triumph apart and it sat in pieces for 15 years and is now a daily driver, I took my Atlas apart and it sat in pieces for seven years and is now a daily driver, my commando I bought in the winter, got it running, and I have been using it as a daily driver too.I am slowly fixing up it between rides because I have my Triumph and Atlas.

My advice (even I have difficulty following it don't follow it). Buy the bike and get it running, don't worry about the cosmetics yet, ride it. Pull off what you want and do it in stages. ie: engine, wheels & brakes, paint work, etc. These things make great winter projects and spread out the cost and time.

Dave

Hardest part...hmm.
Attention span.
I'm like a dog - working hard on a problem, thinking it thru and...SQUIRREL.

Actually these bikes are quite simple machines. The hard part is taking the time to do it right. And re-do it. And take it apart and do it again. And once more for that last little tweek that makes it right. Not necessarily perfect, but right.

I can't imagine how Norton ever made any money with all the set up and adjustments these bikes require.

Greg

Yeah man that's exactly what got me such heated flack from various forums after several world wide forums, told me they are such simple machines what could go wrong so just dive in and work back out no worries mate. Still recovering and learning new hangups 15 yr later.

Looking more and more like her indoors .holding the purse strings :roll: when i married "i" insisted on keeping my wallet firmly closed, 15 years it's still looking good :lol: not as though she ain't tried .

cjandme said:

My biggest problem is time......or lack of it, to spend on wrenching...

Click to expand...

+1

wife + 14 MO twins...14 acres w/horses + sheep...

The hardest thing to do is to stay on task, by the books.

Thinking you "know" or "remember" what steps come next, only to realize later that you have go back and re-do a sub-assembly will humble you to the point of STICKING WITHE THE BOOKS.

By "books", I mean not JUST the shop manual, but ALSO the parts manual. "A picture says a thousand words" (or at least several hundred words in the average parts book illustration)

After owning my Norton for 40 years and motor rebuilt 3 times, 2 time complete motor rebuild the 3rd time was just to replace the crank cases and main bearings, the gear box rebuild and converting it to the Featherbed frame in 1980, but the good thing about rebuiling I know every nut and bolt on this bike, I know where every studs, nuts and bolts go where on the motor, gearbox and primary, but the hardest part to put back on for me is putting the cylinders over the pistons and rings, I have a good set of ring compressors but still perferr to have someone that you can trust to help guide the pistons in while I hold the cylinders and push them down over the pistons, I fine every time I do this job the last oil ring always pops out and having the extra hands it easy to push back inwhile sliding the barrels on.

Other than that I enjoy working on these motors, I have rebuild a few on my mates Nortons over the years but one of the biggest annoying thing is waiting for rebores that surpose to only take a week to do and you wait 12 weeks for the job to get done and all the B/S excuses you get from the machine shop why its has not been done, but I keep it there as they do have all new moden machiney and are good at what they do, can get very frustrating when you are on a time frame to do the job.

Another thing I hate is when my projest motor is all pulled down on the bench ready to be put back together but can't as I have a mates motor being rebuilt and his bottom half of the motor is sitting in the engine stand and I have to keep it there till the barrels come back, should just build another stand I surpose, arr well as long as the beer fridge is full.

Ashley

The hardest part for me is time and the fact that the Commando isn't the only project I've got running at the moment. The Commando always ends up on the back burner because I've not set a time limit on it and if it takes another year to get it 100% finished and in a position where I can wheel it out and ride it whenever I want that's fine. The problem bike is a 500cc Laverda Montjuic that I want to be racing this spring but I keep finding more and more things to do to it and it's not even been near a dyno yet!