What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Bilko said:
I hadn't actually noticed that LAB, well spotted! I need to sort that before I go any further.
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I looked at what I thought were my original shock mount washers and they don’t completely cover the bottom shock mount fully, either. My rear shocks are not original, so my curiosity will cause me to dig out the originals to see if they are different. Also, could the rubber insert be bonded to the round bottom support?
 
"Herefordshire on the Edge" a VMCC organised tour around Herefordshire from Leintwardine to Hay on Wye to Ross on Wye to Malvern back to Leintwardine via various waypoints throughout the countryside. A 240 mile day in glorious weather. Saw a couple of Nortons also on the ride, a red 850 Interstate and a Model 7.

Second time round on the Commando, also done the ride on my T140 a couple of times.
 
Fitted a new rear chain, Elite 530 bought from AN as suggested by others here, fits great, thanks guys. The old chain could be pulled a fair way off the sprocket, new one unsurprisingly, barely moves.
 
Stevo said:
Fitted a new rear chain, Elite 530 bought from AN as suggested by others here, fits great, thanks guys. The old chain could be pulled a fair way off the sprocket, new one unsurprisingly, barely moves.
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Advice : Replace all 3 items at the same time .
 
Not today but yesterday - out for breakfast to my favorite place on earth- Lucille’s. Turns out some a_ _hole wrapped a chain around the Jersey Devil carving Friday night and drug it down the road just to destroy it. He was caught on video and prosecution has begun .
Stupid thing to do - screwing around with Mrs. Leeds ‘ 13th child .
Then -
A5FD4BF8-7468-4ECD-A325-DD10241AA434.jpeg

..and now -
DE7B3633-BDE6-4C70-AAD6-1717EF603EA9.jpeg
 
Richard Tool said:
The only time my Commando left me stranded was when the 30+ yr old un lubricated clutch cable broke . What’s up with that ? LOL
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In my early days I rode my Norton home many of times with a broken clutch cable, seemed to go through one pretty regular in my early days but since putting grease on the end of the cable at the lever end I haven't broken a cable since and the newer cables don't really need to be lubed, but grease on the lever adjuster and on the cable end in the lever stops the cable from fraying and is where they normally break, but back in the 70s clutch cables only cost $2.50, started putting grease on the end of the cable back in the early 80s and haven't broken one since and I am still riding the same bike.
 
Removed the kicker today in prep for another gearbox entry . Seems I shimmed up the layshaft kicker end a bit too tight with the rear iso shims . Thinner coming up .
 
ashman said:
In my early days I rode my Norton home many of times with a broken clutch cable, seemed to go through one pretty regular in my early days but since putting grease on the end of the cable at the lever end I haven't broken a cable since and the newer cables don't really need to be lubed, but grease on the lever adjuster and on the cable end in the lever stops the cable from fraying and is where they normally break, but back in the 70s clutch cables only cost $2.50, started putting grease on the end of the cable back in the early 80s and haven't broken one since and I am still riding the same bike.
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Back when I was working my bollox off every day I'd snapped the hand brake cable on my van
And then a couple of days later I broke the clutch cable
I had to drive back through north London traffic with no handbrake,no clutch
I just left it in first and started off on the key
What made matters worse was my mobile welder and scaffold tower in the back rattling around every time I started off or stopped
I took a morning off and changed both cables!!!
 
Took her out for a jolly good thrashing...180 miles round trip. No problems at all, no oil drips, 3 first kick starts, one 2 kicker and one 3 kicker. I'm getting nervous that something has to be wrong with her!
 
Tornado said:
Took her out for a jolly good thrashing...180 miles round trip. No problems at all, no oil drips, 3 first kick starts, one 2 kicker and one 3 kicker. I'm getting nervous that something has to be wrong with her!
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Just wait on that one , it will eventually happen to her but all can be fixed . . You have the lay shaft bearing fix , Right ?
 
Torontonian said:
Just wait on that one , it will eventually happen to her but all can be fixed . . You have the lay shaft bearing fix , Right ?
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Yup, and many more issues resolved or prevented in the 5 yrs of ownership. Untold $$$ spent. Much wringing of hands, knashing of teeth. Done about 3k miles since last summer without major issues. On track to tip over 24k miles total some point this season.
 
Tornado said:
Yup, and many more issues resolved or prevented in the 5 yrs of ownership. Untold $$$ spent. Much wringing of hands, knashing of teeth. Done about 3k miles since last summer without major issues. On track to tip over 24k miles total some point this season.
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Yeah , I know . I'm just getting warmed up at $30, 000 and growing $ costs for myself . Prime riding now and off to Hamilton in the morning for the Art Crawl Event . A Norton chooses you , you do not actually choose IT . But you have to be O.K. with that , you could loose it all in divorce or any other thingys of life . B.C. in 7 Wks .
 
Well, as I sit here at side of a 4 lane highway, I'm eating my words from yesterday. ßhe just sputtered and died, as if out of fuel, while at speed. Got it restarted, but coughed a bit with throttle and died. Good fuel flowing to carbs. Checked and then swapped plugs. Didn't try to see spark here in full sun with traffic roaring past. No more firing up at all. Got auto club coming. Thinking maybe a failed coil.
 
Tornado said:
Well, as I sit here at side of a 4 lane highway, I'm eating my words from yesterday. ßhe just sputtered and died, as if out of fuel, while at speed. Got it restarted, but coughed a bit with throttle and died. Good fuel flowing to carbs. Checked and then swapped plugs. Didn't try to see spark here in full sun with traffic roaring past. No more firing up at all. Got auto club coming. Thinking maybe a failed coil.
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Found the problem. No spark. Ignition feed wire had a fracture at a connection point. Hidden from view beneath some plastic conduit. Simple fix, but hard to diagnose roadside without a test lamp etc.
 
Tornado, that problem you had is almost exactly what happened to my MG out earlier in the week. Sputtered like running out of gas. Got dark so didn't want to dig into it at the side of the road. Got it towed home and the low tension wire feeding the distributor to spark the plugs was fried from rubbing on the rotor shaft and just gave up. Simple fix, and was easy to diagnose, but decided not to take a chance in the dark with my wife staring at me like I broke the car....
 
Starvingphotog said:
Tornado, that problem you had is almost exactly what happened to my MG out earlier in the week. Sputtered like running out of gas. Got dark so didn't want to dig into it at the side of the road. Got it towed home and the low tension wire feeding the distributor to spark the plugs was fried from rubbing on the rotor shaft and just gave up. Simple fix, and was easy to diagnose, but decided not to take a chance in the dark with my wife staring at me like I broke the car....
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I had the coil go dark on my classic mini, sputtered and rolled to stop, much like the Commando did yesterday, so that was my first thought after confirming fuel good.
On the brightside, I have a very nice plug chop from a long highway speed, not full throttle. Plugs both looked same with light brown shading.
 
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Not a particularly exciting post, but what I did to my Commando today was install a new battery..

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

It's tad larger than the one I took out and as such fits better as there's less wiggle room.

We'll see how that reduced space hinders the fitting of the Alton kit when the time comes :rolleyes:
 
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