What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

With the circlip gone the clutch basket gets gets driven back and grinds against inner primary case half, which explains the aluminum that you see. You will see witness marks from the clutch basket on the inner case and sometimes it drives the whole case back against the end of the swingarm tube leaving a circular mark on the back of the case.. the same thing happened to my bike a long time ago.
 
Well, I checked the circlip and it's just as it was when I installed it in the spring. Intact and in great shape. What I did find is that the inner sprocket that came with the clutch basket as a kit is responsible for all that metal shavings. it makes a scraping sound as it spins and I can see the witness marks all around it as it spins on the basket. You can see it in the photo. So, not sure what's going on there but it's uniform all round the sprocket. I sent a note to Matt about this and also some photos. I removed the clutch basket from the bike and have it on my desk here and as I spin it in there vertical position, as it were sitting in the bike, it makes a rubbing grinding sound as I hold the inner sprocket and spin the basket. I don't think this is normal. I just don't know how it go this way, and if it was like this all the time when I installed the electric start kit with the belt drive, which it's part of ...
There are no witness marks on the back of the clutch basket or on the inner primary, so all the shavings are coming from inside the basket and from where the centre sprocket is spinning with its bearing agains the basket....
 
Could be that. Sending the basket back to Matt to have a look. I have a thought on why my clutch stopped working. All those metal shavings must have lodged themselves into the clutch pack. Once I opened the primary and clutch workings all that crud dropped out into the bottom of the basket. If true, I wonder what caused it. It was either a sudden issue for the inner sprocket to start rubbing on the basket, or it's been doing that for a while now and got to a point where it accumulated on the clutch plates enough to start causing trouble.
 
It looks like the clutch center splines are notched as well, which will give you poor clutch action.

Ask me how I know from my old bronze plates...
 
Yeah, I certainly have a lot going on in that basket. I sent the entire basket and clutch pack to Matt to look over and try to figure out why the clutch centre failed and started grinding against the basket kicking up metal shavings that ultimately buggered the plates. I'm curious myself what happened. But Russ might be on to something there with the foreign entity not playing well with the bike. I just hope that when I installed the belt drive that the two shafts weren't in some way misaligned and that might have caused the clutch basket (bearing) to fail. I don't have tools to test that the main shaft and layshaft are completely aligned. I also have no reason to think that they aren't since my old (original) primary drive setup worked fine.
Mystery indeed. I'll have to wait and see. My wife told me that I should roll my Combat out of my office and ride it while I wait on Matt:)
 
Starvingphotog said:
Yeah, I certainly have a lot going on in that basket. I sent the entire basket and clutch pack to Matt to look over and try to figure out why the clutch centre failed and started grinding against the basket kicking up metal shavings that ultimately buggered the plates. I'm curious myself what happened. But Russ might be on to something there with the foreign entity not playing well with the bike. I just hope that when I installed the belt drive that the two shafts weren't in some way misaligned and that might have caused the clutch basket (bearing) to fail. I don't have tools to test that the main shaft and layshaft are completely aligned. I also have no reason to think that they aren't since my old (original) primary drive setup worked fine.
Mystery indeed. I'll have to wait and see. My wife told me that I should roll my Combat out of my office and ride it while I wait on Matt:)
Click to expand...
Misalignment can definately be your issue .
I got luck first attempt fitting a belt drive on my former 72 .
Simply tightened it all down , kicking it over ( many times ) with the plugs out of course . Observing for any belt travel off center . I even pulled in the clutch to visualise any off center trueness . All good . Cover on , oil in , ran for many miles without any issues , then sold to buy the E- start 75 .
Enjoy .
 
Tore down the entire primary to retighten the front sprocket and replace the faulty sprag. Got as far as only needing to restack the clutch and set the cNw transfer gear indent pins when I ran out of time to get ready for a ride with some friends to The Six Bells in Warborough, Oxon. Classic car meet.

Excellent event which I obviously had to take another bike and as 2 of the guys were on airheads I elected to take the R12S.

200 yrds after leaving my dash flashed red with a tyre warning! Bollox, my first ever puncture on a bike or car (push bike excepted). That was @ 8:30 pm Got to thank the locals who provided a chair, a cup of tea and some snacks. Warms the heart😀

BMW free recovery (new bikes have at least one advantage) got home 4 hrs later. Still, could have been much worse, could have been the Norton in Italy last month🤣
 

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Took my new brakes and rear tire for a short scrub in ride.

gortnipper

Post in thread 'Muttster: A long, slow '74 resto-mod'

The Dupetruyn's contracture in my right hand has gotten worse in the past few years. This is fully stretched open.



I have to twist my hand thumb down 45 degrees to pick up a glass.

It had gotten to the point where I haven't be able to use my middle finger effectively enough when braking to give me high confidence. I had adjusted the levers down a bit and gotten some shorty cammed levers for my CNW Brembo kit, and that worked for a number of years.

So, I started using mainly my index and ring fingers to brake. But with the setup I had I found I just wasn't getting enough...
  • Like
 
Fitted new rear tire- TT 100 - and carelessly dented the hub cover with the tire irons. Now trying to save it with hammer and dolly work and re - polish-
Ugh !
 
gortnipper said:
Took my new brakes and rear tire for a short scrub in ride.

gortnipper

Post in thread 'Muttster: A long, slow '74 resto-mod'

The Dupetruyn's contracture in my right hand has gotten worse in the past few years. This is fully stretched open.



I have to twist my hand thumb down 45 degrees to pick up a glass.

It had gotten to the point where I haven't be able to use my middle finger effectively enough when braking to give me high confidence. I had adjusted the levers down a bit and gotten some shorty cammed levers for my CNW Brembo kit, and that worked for a number of years.

So, I started using mainly my index and ring fingers to brake. But with the setup I had I found I just wasn't getting enough...
  • Like
Click to expand...

Just in case you have been thinking about surgery for your Dupuytrens issue, allow me to encourage you to consider it. I had regular cut and slice surgical correction to my left hand in 2008 and a chemical procedure with injections and manually breaking the tendon growth by bending back the fingers, in 2011. I'm still very happy with the results, and have no issues related to continuing to ride a variety of bikes, including my Nortons. If I hadn't had the procedures, I'm sure I would have eventually had to give up riding. As it is, I'm still enjoying regular rides with my friends in the local canyons at the age of 84. So, the point of my babbling on is just to suggest that if you haven't considered getting your hand fixed, maybe you should. My opinion is that the surgical procedure is slightly better in terms of appearance and function, but only slightly. It is, however, more invasive and takes longer to heal. The only drawback is that I probably lost some hand strength in the process. The surgeon told me to expect that, but the truth is that I've never noticed any loss, so if it's there, it can't be much.

Hoping you can get it sorted out and continue riding for many more years.

Ken
 
lcrken said:
Just in case you have been thinking about surgery for your Dupuytrens issue, allow me to encourage you to consider it. I had regular cut and slice surgical correction to my left hand in 2008 and a chemical procedure with injections and manually breaking the tendon growth by bending back the fingers, in 2011. I'm still very happy with the results, and have no issues related to continuing to ride a variety of bikes, including my Nortons. If I hadn't had the procedures, I'm sure I would have eventually had to give up riding. As it is, I'm still enjoying regular rides with my friends in the local canyons at the age of 84. So, the point of my babbling on is just to suggest that if you haven't considered getting your hand fixed, maybe you should. My opinion is that the surgical procedure is slightly better in terms of appearance and function, but only slightly. It is, however, more invasive and takes longer to heal. The only drawback is that I probably lost some hand strength in the process. The surgeon told me to expect that, but the truth is that I've never noticed any loss, so if it's there, it can't be much.

Hoping you can get it sorted out and continue riding for many more years.

Ken
Click to expand...
I have had three surgeries on my two hands.



Each fixes it for 6 months and seems to to then make it worse overall. My hand doc said i have the most aggressive case he has ever seen.

That pinky is bent about 65 degrees now.
 
Café au Lait said:
Tore down the entire primary to retighten the front sprocket and replace the faulty sprag. Got as far as only needing to restack the clutch and set the cNw transfer gear indent pins when I ran out of time to get ready for a ride with some friends to The Six Bells in Warborough, Oxon. Classic car meet.

Excellent event which I obviously had to take another bike and as 2 of the guys were on airheads I elected to take the R12S.

200 yrds after leaving my dash flashed red with a tyre warning! Bollox, my first ever puncture on a bike or car (push bike excepted). That was @ 8:30 pm Got to thank the locals who provided a chair, a cup of tea and some snacks. Warms the heart😀

BMW free recovery (new bikes have at least one advantage) got home 4 hrs later. Still, could have been much worse, could have been the Norton in Italy last month🤣
Click to expand...
Dang that photo looks like me last Sunday when my clutch failed to disengage. 75mile tow home. I should have taken a photo like you did.
 
Richard Tool said:
Fitted new rear tire- TT 100 - and carelessly dented the hub cover with the tire irons. Now trying to save it with hammer and dolly work and re - polish-
Ugh !
Click to expand...
I decided not to use that cover on my recent tire rebuilds. if I can find it in my bin of parts it's yours. Message me if you want me to find it.
 
gortnipper said:
I have had three surgeries on my two hands.



Each fixes it for 6 months and seems to to then make it worse overall. My hand doc said i have the most aggressive case he has ever seen.

That pinky is bent about 65 degrees now.
Click to expand...


After 60 years of turning wrenches and all of the other guy stuff I've done, my hands have regressed to this level as well, locking up without warning. I had EMG but the tech said he couldn't determine the exact cause of my issue, so I'm pursuing another doc to follow through. Like you, the thing that bothers me the most is the issue happens
without warning and has really caught my attention at times when riding my Norton......Getting old sucks....
 

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