What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Motown1 said:
Connection look to be ok at timing plate
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Unfortunately the problem is not normally visible. The strands inside the cables break due to vibration but the insulation stays intact. If you remove the cable tie holding the two wires you may find that one of them bends easier at that point. (meaning it's broken, and probably making intermittent contact).


What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?


There are many fixes but you can see mine here...

Almost Stranded

I was a bit bored today, as my kids have gone back home and my wife was at work. Bike riding is out at the moment as there is about 5 inches of snow outside. So I thought what can I quickly do in the freezing garage? Ideally I want to take a bit off the bike and check or refurb it in the house...
www.accessnorton.com www.accessnorton.com
 
Test rode 10 miles after oil line change. Noticeable improvement Only one drop under it after sitting! Now for the reason for changing oil lines. None of the Herring bone fiber was left. But also looking at oil filter adaptor I could see much of the steel sleeve on the return side. After 50 years It just pulled right off very little resistance. For $30 worth of transmission hose I could have lost an engine!
 
mean gene said:
Test rode 10 miles after oil line change. Noticeable improvement Only one drop under it after sitting! Now for the reason for changing oil lines. None of the Herring bone fiber was left. But also looking at oil filter adaptor I could see much of the steel sleeve on the return side. After 50 years It just pulled right off very little resistance. For $30 worth of transmission hose I could have lost an engine!
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Good save
I once found my oil filter housing hanging on by one bolt
I can't work out how the bolt fell out!!
The tab washer was still bent over ?
 
Minor adjustments for a 500 mile run Friday including carbs, chains, brakes, wiring details, and a real good test run before the camping gear is srapped on. Awesome machine to say the least.
 
Stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the ignition switch, pulled the carbs down, flattened the carb bowls on glass with wet-and-dry and fitted braided fuel line to replace the old one which had turned to bakelite.

 
davamb said:
Stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the ignition switch, pulled the carbs down, flattened the carb bowls on glass with wet-and-dry and fitted braided fuel line to replace the old one which had turned to bakelite.

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Stripped and cleaned my Ign. switch too today as I pulled into home after the Paris rally with light mis-firings on arrival. Today stripping down to more wiring possibilities , finding a corroded main ground so working on that all day tomorrow if people will leave me alone to do it. Around here highly unlikely. I'm off the road until this is repaired.
 
I got my second bar-end mirror in that was on back order. That went on the right side of the Norton and it fits perfectly after I checked the brake lever clearance. I also got my 2BA tap in from Steadfast Cycles. It too had been on back order but it;s not a Norton item. I used it to chaise the rusted threads on my 1966 T100 gas tank and now I have the tank badges mounted. It looks more like a Triumph and less like a parts bike.
 
Torontonian said:
Stripped and cleaned my Ign. switch too today as I pulled into home after the Paris rally with light mis-firings on arrival. Today stripping down to more wiring possibilities , finding a corroded main ground so working on that all day tomorrow if people will leave me alone to do it. Around here highly unlikely. I'm off the road until this is repaired.
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I need a good photo or schematic for the MK 111 ignition switch wiring. I disconnected it all to open up and clean the switch. Did I take notes on that , like where they plug back into ? No. I'm off the road now. Flickering power. Bought a new voltmeter today .
 
Good News.....On my new to me MKiii, I retorqued the head, adj. valves, cleaned plugs, set ignition timing (was slow about 5*), dropped the Mikuni 34 needle 1 clip notch from 3 to 2. The ole girl is running like a top, throttle is much crisper. Cheers
 
went for 50 mile ride early this morning on country roads got chased home by rain got hit in stomach by a brown bird it happened so fast i did not identify the species i was doing about 50mph felt like punch in gut! began mulling belt drive oh craig wife and i flew over your house in Boeing 777 on way to and back from hungary austria bavaria last week
 
I painted the inside of my headlamp white on my restoration of 314219. If you ever want a clear view of wiring in your headlamp especially on a dark night this is the answer. Absolutely amazing difference in visibility and fault finding.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
L.A.B. said:
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
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Adding to LAB's excellent and informative pic, here's what I needed to do to mine to get it to behave:
To dismantle the switch carefully tab the 4 bent-over parts of the housing back. Go easy here, only about 1/2 a mm will be required to remove the bakelite plate and spade connector stubs.
Be careful not to lose the 4 springs. It is quite likely that these are now loose in the housing and this is the primary cause of poor contacts. Use a large clean working space!
Wash all the bits down with isopropyl alcohol - removing all gunk, dust, corrosion and grease. Mke sure the nylon block is scrupulously clean.
Place a small drop of cyanoacrylate (supaglu) on each of the 4 buds that the springs sit on.
Drop the cleaned springs onto the nubs and allow to set.
Clean the copper switch rotor careflully with very fine wet and dry or steel wool. This too has to be immaculate.
Clean the brass contact rivets similarly.
Flush out the switch lock mechanism with CRC or similar. Blast away matey. Leave it switch entry down to drain out.
Get a SMALL amount of grease on a toothpick or piece of wire - generic will suffice if you don't have any dielectric grease - and lubricate the detent ball.
Work the switch mechanism 10 ~ 20 times with the key to make sure all is sweet.
Re-assemble complete mechanism - it only goes back together one way:

contact isolation disc on to bakelite contact disc
then copper switch rotor onto that
then offer this sandwich up to the nylon block - watch them there springs!
gently peen the retention tabs back over.

 
alan hodge said:
went for 50 mile ride early this morning on country roads got chased home by rain got hit in stomach by a brown bird it happened so fast i did not identify the species i was doing about 50mph felt like punch in gut! began mulling belt drive oh craig wife and i flew over your house in Boeing 777 on way to and back from hungary austria bavaria last week
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Last week The car in front of me clipped a grouse flying out of a ditch. Pulled over the Norton , walked back and picked it up for dinner. Perfect head clip. A good day , plus 5 brook trout on ice in the saddlebag. Yeah.
 
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