What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

YING · 2026-03-21T05:01:31-0600

Andy Higham said:
My laser cut parts for my head steady arrived today. I fitted them together and tested for clearance on the bike

I use a tab and slot system to lock the parts together prior to welding. The two holes at the front are where the spring support ties in.

20260310_192633 by Sigma Projects, on Flickr

20260310_192703 by Sigma Projects, on Flickr

20260310_192836 by Sigma Projects, on Flickr

Andy,
I love the look on the dogs face.Keeping an eye out on the progress!
Mike

Andy Higham · 2026-03-21T05:56:23-0600

He is called Dio

nortonmargie · 2026-03-21T18:04:27-0600

Today I: checked head bolts, looks like the composite gasket has finally settled in, checked valves, clearances good, checked primary and gearbox oil, both levels OK. I replaced one exhaust valve gasket and the intake gasket with the JS Motosports silicone fiberglass gaskets. Decided not to replace the other exhaust valve gasket yet, because the paper gasket looks good and I want to do a test run on the fiberglass.
I replaced the head and tail light with LED's. The headlight is from Paul Goff, tail light is Lucas. The first photos is the LED headlight. The second photo is the old taillight. Photo 3 is the LED taillight. Photo 4 is the previous headlight, a 60 watt H4

King Of Cryo · 2026-03-22T00:30:03-0600

Starvingphotog said:
So, what happened with your bike to make it quit like that? Was there a problem with your new stator? I'm going to be doing the same thing soon and upgrading my original alternator setup with a 3-phase kit from Matt @cNw.

Ha! I was out of gas. My last stator (3ph 10.5a) was rubbing on the rotor. It melted the epoxy and destroyed the whole thing. I took a cue from Matt and modified the new stator to increase clearance. It still charges at perfect levels.

Fast Eddie · 2026-03-22T01:16:04-0600

King Of Cryo said:
Ha! I was out of gas. My last stator (3ph 10.5a) was rubbing on the rotor. It melted the epoxy and destroyed the whole thing. I took a cue from Matt and modified the new stator to increase clearance. It still charges at perfect levels.

What was Matt’s trick for increasing clearance ?

HouTexNorton · 2026-03-22T11:42:11-0600

King Of Cryo said:
Ha! I was out of gas. My last stator (3ph 10.5a) was rubbing on the rotor. It melted the epoxy and destroyed the whole thing. I took a cue from Matt and modified the new stator to increase clearance. It still charges at perfect levels.

Many seem to have this problem (at least that talk about it). When I bought my 14.5 amp 3 phase stator with a new rotor from Matt I used a cut-up plastic water bottle that measured 0.01" thick to make sure I had the proper clearance between the rotor and stator (I have Matt's e-start so the stator mounting is different than stock). I tested it at idle and the clearance and charging was fine. I went for a ride and noticed that my IC charge warning light was showing no charging after a while. When I got back home and pulled the stator it was completely melted and destroyed. I had Matt turn down the rotor 0.01" all around and installed a new stator. Same installation procedure with no issue at idle, but when ridden it was rubbing again, but not as much. I used a Dremel tool with a sanding drum to clean up the inside of the stator and remove a little of the epoxy material all around being careful not to damage the magnets. Finally all is well, but I would guess that I now have about 0.025" of clearance and still get good charging. I measured the crankshaft with a dial indicator and am not getting any noticeable deflection when manually turning it, but who knows if there might be some when it runs and heats up. Maybe a slight bearing issue, although the engine has less than 1,000 miles since completely rebuilt by Classic Bike Experience.

Fast Eddie · 2026-03-22T11:59:27-0600

HouTexNorton said:
Many seem to have this problem (at least that talk about it). When I bought my 14.5 amp 3 phase stator with a new rotor from Matt I used a cut-up plastic water bottle that measured 0.01" thick to make sure I had the proper clearance between the rotor and stator (I have Matt's e-start so the stator mounting is different than stock). I tested it at idle and the clearance and charging was fine. I went for a ride and noticed that my IC charge warning light was showing no charging after a while. When I got back home and pulled the stator it was completely melted and destroyed. I had Matt turn down the rotor 0.01" all around and installed a new stator. Same installation procedure with no issue at idle, but when ridden it was rubbing again, but not as much. I used a Dremel tool with a sanding drum to clean up the inside of the stator and remove a little of the epoxy material all around being careful not to damage the magnets. Finally all is well, but I would guess that I now have about 0.025" of clearance and still get good charging. I measured the crankshaft with a dial indicator and am not getting any noticeable deflection when manually turning it, but who knows if there might be some when it runs and heats up. Maybe a slight bearing issue, although the engine has less than 1,000 miles since completely rebuilt by Classic Bike Experience.

On all my Lucas equipped Brit bikes I now ensure a 0.020” gap (ie rotor OD 0.040” smaller than stator ID) and use a strip of a plastic milk carton to ensure clearance all round when tightening things up.
I’ve never had any charging issues as a result.
Someone on here cleverer than me once calculated the likely reduction in charging as a result and it was practically unmeasurably small.

nortonmargie · 2026-03-22T15:00:57-0600

HouTexNorton said:
Many seem to have this problem (at least that talk about it). When I bought my 14.5 amp 3 phase stator with a new rotor from Matt I used a cut-up plastic water bottle that measured 0.01" thick to make sure I had the proper clearance between the rotor and stator (I have Matt's e-start so the stator mounting is different than stock). I tested it at idle and the clearance and charging was fine. I went for a ride and noticed that my IC charge warning light was showing no charging after a while. When I got back home and pulled the stator it was completely melted and destroyed. I had Matt turn down the rotor 0.01" all around and installed a new stator. Same installation procedure with no issue at idle, but when ridden it was rubbing again, but not as much. I used a Dremel tool with a sanding drum to clean up the inside of the stator and remove a little of the epoxy material all around being careful not to damage the magnets. Finally all is well, but I would guess that I now have about 0.025" of clearance and still get good charging. I measured the crankshaft with a dial indicator and am not getting any noticeable deflection when manually turning it, but who knows if there might be some when it runs and heats up. Maybe a slight bearing issue, although the engine has less than 1,000 miles since completely rebuilt by Classic Bike Experience.

I had the same problem with a rotor bought from Andover. I spent several days with sandpaper and feeler gauges, making sure I had clearance all around. I found that there was a very slight wobble which led to less clearance in some positions.

nortonmargie · 2026-03-22T15:05:38-0600

Went for 75 mile ride, breakfast and back. Bike ran fine. Came back and changed oil and filter. I usually spill a lot of oil doing oil changes and this time I just spilled a few drops. Happy camper.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

YING

Pittsboro,NC

Andy Higham

nortonmargie

King Of Cryo

Fast Eddie

HouTexNorton

Fast Eddie

nortonmargie

nortonmargie

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