And so it resumes

The rugby ended up being a bad idea after Bedford lost at home to Cornish Pirates but the beer and the curry were good so I’m feeling ready to resume the battle after I’ve repaired the broken wardrobe my daughter has asked me to look at tomorrow :blast
 
I didn’t have a lot of time to mess about with the bike today so basically I took off the timing cover and checked the valve timing. Initially I thought it was outbut rotated the engine 180 and it was spot on. New timing chin as well so that’s good and the oil seal looks brand new so that’s good as well.

Because I’d had to remove the electronic ignition trigger I went through putting it back exactly as per the instructions and it’s now as good as it’s going to get.

I was going to back off the valve clearances to 0.011” but dinner was ready so that was left for tomorrow but after dinner I couldn’t leave it alone so I went back, give it a short burst of Easystart down each plug, gave it a turn over slowly then kicked it and bang, it fired up and ran beautifully :D

I’ve got a suspicion I’d been timing it clockwise rather than anti clockwise which would have put it out by about 90 degrees so it was never going to start and any one with a brain would have spotted it immediately and told me I’m a twat who should stick to Japanese bikes but hey ho, it’s running now.

The engine is quiet but that’ll change when I back the valve clearances off tomorrow then I’ll make sure the lubrication system is all working as it should, connect the tacho, refit the headlight, send the speedo back to Andover Norton, find somewhere to mount the box for the electronic ignition and then run it again. Once that’s done I’ll tighten everything up and move onto the running gear and forks while I go through the process of registering it.

It’s fucking loud with the peashooter exhausts but internet rumours suggest that the PW3 cam will also make it a bit louder than standard. All of a sudden I’m tempted to keep it :thumb2

Last word on it for now - yeah, I’m well chuffed that I’ve finally got it started and thanks for the encouragement :beerjug:
 
Excellent progress Andy. Enjoying this thread a lot. The trials and tribulations eh. That feeling on the successful kick eh? Nothing like it.:clap:thumb2
 
Looking on the positives....

The fact that this morning it’s pissing oil out of the feed to the rockers means the oil pump is working well. Nothing much to worry about, I’ve got bags of copper washers so I’ll change them over when I remove the tank and change the valve clearances.

The plugs are as black as black can get but I’m not worried about that too much, I just took the carbs out of the boxes and bunged them on so I’ll adjust the mixture to a best guess then use my colourtune to set it properly but obviously enough the oil leak needs dealing with first.

I’d got my strobe out of its box ready to check the timing with the engine running but yet again, I need to sort the oil leak before doing that.

The alternator light is staying on which can be one of a number of things (it’s got a new assimilator but new means nothing really) but I can’t check the volts across the battery with the engine running until I do the oil leak.

I’ll finish my cup of tea then go and change those copper washers and see if that works, if successful I can start looking at the other things that have cropped up. Anyone want to place bets on what time I give up, get my eBike out and head for the pub? :beer:
 
Well it’s a tad early just yet :D. Don’t forget we want sound and vision when she starts again :thumb
It’s a lovely bike and you’ve brought it back to “life”. Well done!
 
Worth re torquing the head before you adjust the valve clearances.
If you used a composite gasket then they usually bed down after a heat cycle or two.
Remember that the front two nuts at the top are 5/16 so are 20ft/lbs not 30 like the rest.
I see alot of the front studs pulled out or stripped.
As they all use a 1/4whit socket,its easy to make a mistake.

Your exhaust nuts need to be very tight or they will chatter the threads away in the head.
An airhead BMW exhaust nut spanner fits the original Norton nuts better than the factory tool.

Really pleased its running. Get it set up right and they are a lovely thing to ride.:thumby:
 
casper said:
Worth re torquing the head before you adjust the valve clearances.
If you used a composite gasket then they usually bed down after a heat cycle or two.
Remember that the front two nuts at the top are 5/16 so are 20ft/lbs not 30 like the rest.
I see alot of the front studs pulled out or stripped.
As they all use a 1/4whit socket,its easy to make a mistake.

Your exhaust nuts need to be very tight or they will chatter the threads away in the head.
An airhead BMW exhaust nut spanner fits the original Norton nuts better than the factory tool.

Really pleased its running. Get it set up right and they are a lovely thing to ride.:thumby:
Click to expand...

It’s had a good 5 minutes running since changing the copper washers and there’s a slight weep from the right hand side washer closest to the head but it’s minimal and the washers were just lifted out of a box so I’ll anneal it later even though I should have done it before fitting.

I’d got it on my tick list to re-torque the head, I’ve got crows foot spanners that fit my 3/8 torque wrench but only in metric sizes so the ones that tighten from underneath will be done by feel with a ring spanner.

I’ve already given the exhaust nuts a nip and I’ll do it again a number of times as it gets heat cycled a few times. I sent the head to Seager Engineering to be sleeved with threaded inserts after finding that it had been repaired before but the inserts were a loose fit, not screwed into the head and only had a tiny seam weld holding them in. I only found this when tightening the nuts and that’s the reason why everything was stalled on the rebuild over 2 years ago. When Seagers do the job you get new nuts and a spanner to suit which is a very good fit so I’m happy I’ll not be smashing my hand when it flies off.

The timing was about 5 degrees advanced when at full advance so I’ve reset that now I can strobe it so that’s progress in the right direction.

I’ve checked the compression after remembering I’ve got a compression tester and with the throttle wide open it’s showing 122psi on both sides which seems low to me but it’s a new engine and probably needs to bed the rings in to get a decent seal. I might give it a squirt of oil to see if that lifts it a bit but at least both sides read the same which is always a bit reassuring.

I’ve backed off the screws to 2 turns out rather than the normal 1-1/2 and it’s still running rich so while the tank is off I’ll whip the top off the carbs and check the needle settings and drop them 2 notches then put the air screw back in and see what happens. Once it’s in the ballpark I’ll adjust the airscrew while I’ve got a colourtune fitted and I might even go to the extreme of balancing them but that’s only if it’s not running very well.

It’s not charging but that’s simply going to be a case of going through the system and there are plenty of websites giving step by step walk through checks for idiots so I might strike lucky :D

Anyway, the engine should be stone cold by now so back to the valves.
 
Never had a Norton but this is a really interesting thread with real engineering input from others. Great job and please post a video when it’s running
 
I’ve decided that enough is enough as far as the engine, carbs and ignition are concerned because even though the plugs are black I’m not convinced that it’s because it’s running rich and it might just be burning excess oil from the rebuild so nothing can really be done about that until I get it on the road. These old air cooled bikes are a pain in the arse really because a nice new bike would have water cooling and I could run it for ages in the workshop without any fear of it over heating :blast

The forks felt shite, they simply didn’t rebound and felt dry so I drained the oil out and checked how much there was. It was a bit low on quantity but that’s probably because they’d have been built dry and draining never gets it all out. I’ve removed the damper rods and the shorter springs that sit at the top look as if they’ve never seen oil but I’ll build each leg up with new oil and see if they work properly. I suspect that the bushes were running dry so I’ll lubricate everything, slide them up and down a dozen or so times then rebuild the forks. There’s no discernible play in the bushes and all the parts I can see are brand new so I should get away with it.

The front brake pads are new and the caliper is either new or has been fully reconditioned but I’ll change the fluid because I’ve had the bike nearly 4 years and never touched the front brake.

I know I should check the isolastic mounts but I’ve not got a clue where to start so I’ll go there if it’s got handling problems otherwise it’ll be left well alone.

I could have had all these little jobs done ages ago but the fact that it wasn’t running left me totally disinterested so now I’ve got to crack on and get it all done. I need to take photos of both sides of the bike and take rubbings along with photos of the frame and engine numbers before the Norton Owners Club will supply me with the paperwork I need to register it but the frame and engine numbers match so that’s always a good start :D
 
Well done Andy! So will we see you with it at Santander in October - who knows, I may have a little blue Duke to make you jealous!

Meanwhile my probably useless two penn'th - I recall some articles in Bike Magazine back in the 'seventies - so take with a large pinch of salt! - that some guys dispensed with the isolastic stuff altogether and actually got a better ride despite the vibes- or maybe it was their lady pillion passengers who were purring ... OK OK, don't go on, it was the 'seventies and you could say what you b****y well liked! :)

Regs

Simon

Simon
 
Sounds like it’s all coming along nicely, (forks excluded). Is the front brake caliper, disc and master cylinder the original or have you upgraded it.Before I took mine off the road the bike was rideable so I did some miles on it. The front brake in standard form is fucking deadly:eek: on seeking advice I was assured that was normal............I am definitely upgrading mine, loads of choice out there. Good luck and keep us informed, I’ll be picking your brains early next year:thumb
I think when you get this going properly (and stopping) you will love this bike, it’s a great bike to ride when sorted well......:beerjug:
 
I’ve got the brake problem to face up to soon and I’m afraid it’s got the horrible early disc brake at the front. I’d have been happier if it had the older drum brake because I can set up twin leading shoe brakes pretty well if I spend some time with a file on the edges of the pads then use feeler gauges to set them up (I really have done that!) but short of going for a race set up I’ll have to live with it.

It’s nothing new, I’ve got a Kawasaki H2 with an equally wooden front disc and when I first bought that I was going to convert it to twin discs until I rode one that had been done and realised that two lumps of wood really aren’t £500 better than one.

The Parceforce website says my parts are out for delivery from the Cambridge depot so I’ll get them on the bike in under an hour, refit the brake and mudguard then go back to the charging issue. I’d have started that yesterday but running the bike on the centre stand with the forks in bits seemed a bad idea so I made 5 gallons of industrial strength homebrew instead :beer:
 
It’s back together but I’ve had to stop work on it for a while due to needing to do a couple of weeks work to keep my main client happy. I’d been hoping to stay off until the middle of May but it’s not happening for me.

Anyway, here it is, sitting outside in the sun for the first time in about 2 years. It actually looks pretty good though a Norton expert would pick holes in it but then again, it’s not been built as a concours bike, it’s there to be ridden so bollocks to the dreamers who never ride the bikes.

a98add4584ae6fb5b3dffc5300967de8.jpg


c2b32977d8e1be23988920efc350c642.jpg


I’m going to be 100% honest and say that it owes me about £6.5k without counting the hours I’ve put in but I’ll probably keep it for at least this summer so I’m not really interested in what it’s actually worth right now.
 
Looks good.
In that condition and with the work that has/will be done to it, it’s definitely worth more than 6.5k nearer 8k I would think, and rising.Great to hear it’s a bike for riding, exactly what mines going to be. I obviously want it very tidy but not concours by any stretch.Looking forward to getting stuck into mine now.
:beerjug:

Just noticed the rims on it, Borrani??
 
Johno23 said:
Looks good.
In that condition and with the work that has/will be done to it, it’s definitely worth more than 6.5k nearer 8k I would think, and rising.Great to hear it’s a bike for riding, exactly what mines going to be. I obviously want it very tidy but not concours by any stretch.Looking forward to getting stuck into mine now.
:beerjug:

Just noticed the rims on it, Borrani??
Click to expand...

I don’t know what make they are, the guy who started the work cleaned them up, painted the centre parts black and had them rebuilt with stainless spokes and though I’m not overly keen on the black centres they’re staying as they are. I suppose having alloy rims reduces the unsprung weight which is never a bad thing but if they were standard chromed rims I’d not be changing them so it’s a bit irrelevant really.

If all goes well with registering it I should have it legally on the road by the end of May and then it’s a case of just curing all the niggling faults that are bound to appear and riding the thing. I’d like to get it so that I don’t worry about trips of over a few hundred miles because it’d be a highlight of my year if I could trust it to get me to one of the classic race weekends in Belgium :D
 
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