Raison d'etre. (Scuse my French).

The problem with this blog thing seems to be that although you start with great ideas it soon becomes obvious that getting them down on 'paper' is not so easy.

I suppose if I'm truthfull this blog is an advert for all things Norton, the Norton Owners Club and the Norfolk Branch of that Club. Oh and Me! It also means spending time to update on a fairly regular basis. That could be the death of it.

If you are a Norton Owner and are guided by someone to this blog or if you just happen to stumble over it, and yor bike is sitting in a shed unloved, I hope the pictures you see and the blah you read here are enough to get you wielding a spanner or two in an attempt to get out on the road. Its where your Norton belongs.

Riding a Norton is just 'COOL'. Something that has to be done before you check out. There! I've said it. Have you done it?



Evening Commando

Evening Commando
WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Pictures say a thousand words

Pictures say a thousand words although when you own a Norton you can only truly express the experience using words. I hope to use a few here as time goes by. If anyone stumbles across this blog I hope you will find something of interest. Good luck to you.







Sunday, 31 October 2010

SORTING OUT A BENT COMMANDO

Well!  That's it.  Yesterday I proved to myself that it could be done.  Since my accident and during the past few weeks I have slowly taken the Commando to pieces.  In a bid to keep things simple I decided that if possible I would take the engine and gear box out of the frame in one piece.  It was obvious that the swing arm would have to be removed from the gear box cradle, as would the centre stand so that nothing would catch as we manhandled everything out from between the frame tubes.  The former came away with ease having been oiled on a regular basis, but the centre stand was another matter.  I had had the mounting holes in the cradle enlarged and made spacers to fit the holes.  The centre stand bolts then went through a hole in the spacers.  Everything should have worked fine, but one of the spacers had crammed up and locked on the bolt.  Getting that apart became a two man job.
I decided to leave the kick-start lever on the gear box as it would doubtless give us something to hold on to when the struggle to manhandle the weight of such a large lump of metal began.  I had decided earlier that I would take it all out of the timing side and in the event I think I was justified.
We removed the front isolastic mounting bolt and allowed the engine to drop out on to the bottom frame tubes.  We then removed the rear isolastic mounting bolt and I jiggled the whole unit from side to side using the kick start lever as a handle, while my accomplice hauled up on the front of the engine.  The back end eventually dropped out and within seconds we had twisted the unit around and eased it out of the frame and on to the floor.  Success!
I can see a few reasons why dismantling another Commando in this fashion might not be so easy.  The main one being removal of the swing arm pin.  I threaded a good size bolt in to the end of the pin and tightened up a nut against the pin to stop the bolt turning in the pin.  I then clamped a big Mole Wrench on to the head of the bolt and twisted and pulled on the pin.  After the initial twist the pin began to extract and came out smoothly with a satisfying sucking noise.
I could probably work out how many miles the pin has done, but the wear on it is negligible so I'm not really bothered.  I will still fit a new one though.
Looking at the engine and gear box held together in the cradle in one piece on the floor I can't help feeling that it is an impressive lump.  Cleaned up and shiny it would make a remarkable paper weight.