Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years

J

jh850es

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re: https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/starting-an-850-after-8-years.35277

So it took more than a few weeks to get this sorted, life being what it is. I got divorced, my dad died, the family house was sold off and so on and so forth. So I now own the bike (and a few more) and it's currently crowding my driveway.

Anyway, I just finished draining the tank, cleaning the carbs, swapping the battery and changing the oil to some VR1 20/50. The electric start didn't seem to wake it up, but a few kicks and it fired off. The old oil was new looking but the Lubricheck tester indicated it had a similar level of fitness to 6200 mile old oil from my Odyssey.

The front master cylinder may need a rebuild before it's road ready, and the tires need replacing. In addition, fuel is leaking from various places so all the fiber washers and bowl gaskets and petcock seals need work. And of course the carb boots tore when removing the carbs.

But it can start now. It's on non-op, and the registration renews on Christmas eve so that's my hard deadline to get it on the road.

Next victim: a 1983 Triumph TSX

Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
 
Pretty soon after the last thread, I moved out of my parents' and back to my own house. I didn't have possession of the bike until May of this year.
 
jh850es said:
re: https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/starting-an-850-after-8-years.35277

So it took more than a few weeks to get this sorted, life being what it is. I got divorced, my dad died, the family house was sold off and so on and so forth. So I now own the bike (and a few more) and it's currently crowding my driveway.

Anyway, I just finished draining the tank, cleaning the carbs, swapping the battery and changing the oil to some VR1 20/50. The electric start didn't seem to wake it up, but a few kicks and it fired off. The old oil was new looking but the Lubricheck tester indicated it had a similar level of fitness to 6200 mile old oil from my Odyssey.

The front master cylinder may need a rebuild before it's road ready, and the tires need replacing. In addition, fuel is leaking from various places so all the fiber washers and bowl gaskets and petcock seals need work. And of course the carb boots tore when removing the carbs.

But it can start now. It's on non-op, and the registration renews on Christmas eve so that's my hard deadline to get it on the road.

Next victim: a 1983 Triumph TSX

Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Click to expand...
jh850es said:
re: https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/starting-an-850-after-8-years.35277

So it took more than a few weeks to get this sorted, life being what it is. I got divorced, my dad died, the family house was sold off and so on and so forth. So I now own the bike (and a few more) and it's currently crowding my driveway.

Anyway, I just finished draining the tank, cleaning the carbs, swapping the battery and changing the oil to some VR1 20/50. The electric start didn't seem to wake it up, but a few kicks and it fired off. The old oil was new looking but the Lubricheck tester indicated it had a similar level of fitness to 6200 mile old oil from my Odyssey.

The front master cylinder may need a rebuild before it's road ready, and the tires need replacing. In addition, fuel is leaking from various places so all the fiber washers and bowl gaskets and petcock seals need work. And of course the carb boots tore when removing the carbs.

But it can start now. It's on non-op, and the registration renews on Christmas eve so that's my hard deadline to get it on the road.

Next victim: a 1983 Triumph TSX

Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Starting an 850 MkIII after, um, 10 years
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear about Dad, just lost mine too. You lost the wife, house, what about the dog, and your job? This sounds like the makings of a Country song. At least you still have your Norton and it still runs. Just change all the fluids, do all the required maintenance and carry on. Wives, houses, dogs are a dime a dozen. Be safe, ride free. Sorry to hear about Dad!
 
It looks like you are off to a good start. Where are you in the US? We have a couple 75's and may be of some assistance, but you'll get plenty of answers on this forum.:)
 
I second Nortster: Where are you in the US? There may be a Norton Club within hailing distance. Also, if you feel you need someone to tell your troubles to, all the humane societies are overloaded at the moment. Any adult dog and many cats are good listeners.
 
Youll be right .

If you live at the top of a big hill .

Actually , with push starts at racetracks , and suchlike . a ' run start ' is a fairly sure bet .
Thats WHY they had the 6 V coils. ( Ugh ) . As all the drain , starting them , hopefully left 6 volts available . For the COILS .

So , a carefully hooked up ' car battery ' so theres ten ton of juice , could save a bit of ditheriseation , if your ' fireing it up '
in the shed .
 
jh850es said:
I'm in San Jose. I got tons of good answers in the old thread that I linked up top. I'm implementing them now.

I haven't checked the air filter but that's a good note.
Click to expand...
https://nortonclub.com/ - Members of one of the largest Norton Clubs in the US are right in your neighborhood. Come to Alices Restaurant any Sunday around 11 am when many members meet for brunch (ask the waitstaff, they will know who the Nortoneers are) and introduce yourself
 
Matt Spencer said:
So , a carefully hooked up ' car battery ' so theres ten ton of juice , could save a bit of ditheriseation , if your ' fireing it up '
in the shed .
Click to expand...

Nevertheless, it should start up easily on the bike's own battery if it's fully charged so something must be wrong if it won't.
 
L.A.B. said:
Nevertheless, it should start up easily on the bike's own battery if it's fully charged so something must be wrong if it won't.
Click to expand...
So starting is a non-issue at this point. It started pretty easily with the kick starter.

I noticed it's got a Boyer Bransden ignition. I saw the spark with my own eyes so it seems to be working.

The big question mark right now: is the master cylinder OK? There's a bunch of gunk around it so I'm a bit worried, but I haven't had it apart yet. I'm going to bleed first and see what happens.

I rebuilt my Goldwing's calipers a few years ago and learned a lot about non-destructive scraping of machined aluminum surfaces. It was a real pain but had great results. The trick? I had a bunch of aluminum spindle spacers that came out of an old hard drive. These could be filed and bent into shape to reach all the channels where the seals fit, to scrape off the crystallized brake fluid without leaving scratches. Hopefully that won't be necessary here.
 
jh850es said:
I noticed it's got a Boyer Bransden ignition.
Click to expand...

It's probably the old Boyer MkIII type so that could be the reason it won't start on the electric starter.
jh850es said:
The big question mark right now: is the master cylinder OK? There's a bunch of gunk around it so I'm a bit worried, but I haven't had it apart yet. I'm going to bleed first and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Yes, and the rear master cylinder and caliper will need rebuilding too.
 
Close look at ht cables...shows wear divets along the length at several points...chuck 'em in the bin.
 
Front brakes: fluid replaced, levers operate normally now. Rebuild, eventually.

Rear brakes: Eeek. Hard lever, then felt like a rusty pipe when it finally moved. Plunger did not return. Fluid very rusty in the reservoir. This one's going to hurt.
 
jh850es said:
Front brakes: fluid replaced, levers operate normally now. Rebuild, eventually.

Rear brakes: Eeek. Hard lever, then felt like a rusty pipe when it finally moved. Plunger did not return. Fluid very rusty in the reservoir. This one's going to hurt.
Click to expand...
A new SS barrel for the rear MC is about $100. so it's hardly worth rebuilding the original.
 
It turns out Eurotrash Jambalaya is local to me, and they have a stainless barrel in stock. If they do in person sales I'll grab one tomorrow. However their address is not a storefront so I might be forced to ship it 10 miles across town, which would be a bummer as I'm off work this week.
 

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