1972 Norton Combat Commando 750 trade-up & refurb for eventual sale

Looking good! You appear to have a pretty good stash of bikes and parts there in your shop :)
 
johnu said:
Looking good! You appear to have a pretty good stash of bikes and parts there in your shop

Yep. 29 in the collection, 5 that I gave to my two oldest sons that are still in my possession, 2 client projects in work, and 1 that is sold but not yet collected.

As far as parts, about 4 or 5 long bed pickup loads...
 
grandpaul said:
Yep. 29 in the collection, 5 that I gave to my two oldest sons that are still in my possession, 2 client projects in work, and 1 that is sold but not yet collected.

As far as parts, about 4 or 5 long bed pickup loads...
grandpaul said:
Yep. 29 in the collection, 5 that I gave to my two oldest sons that are still in my possession, 2 client projects in work, and 1 that is sold but not yet collected.

As far as parts, about 4 or 5 long bed pickup loads...

Very nice, can't have too many bikes ;D My dad gives bikes to me like you do to your sons. I will do the same with my boy too :)
 
8/3

Oil tank installed, tore the only half-decent rubber isolator I had, so I made up an isolator from a long bolt and short section of rubber hose. Forget the runny paint, it's not a restoration.

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Oil line connections all done. Also plugged off the "factory oil leak" with a short section of hose & a thick allen screw with RTV silicone.

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8/3

Battery tray installed, as well as hidden horn (what a pain in the butt)

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Rear fender was caked with crud.

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Rear fender spiffed up and installed.

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8/3

Tail light all cleaned up, back plates painted, and installed. Painted the yokes and cleaned up the forks, will re-install them tomorrow.

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Sourced a serviceable set of cylinders, they are on the way to arrive in 2 days. Should be going back together with the top end by the weekend.
 
8/3

Forks flushed, cleaned & filled w/ 5oz 10W30 each, yokes painted, headlight ears polished up, meters & cups cleaned up, and all of that installed.

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Brake disc wire wheeled and the center painted, fender polished and stays painted, those items installed. Note the imperfect factory grinding, typical.

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Looking more like a bike, and it's back to a roller.

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Managed over 6 hours today with 2 breaks, I think we hit 105F...
 
8/6

Folding right side rearset peg and re-shaped shifter a'la JPN. Waiting on left side z-plate & spacer hardware to mount rearset brake pedal.

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Headlight mounted, front brake master cylinder overhauled; only brake hose I have is barely long enough.

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The remaining pile is getting MUCH smaller...

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I've already pulled over $600 worth of good used parts off the shelves and out of various bins around the shop. There would have been a stock set of footpegs and rear brake pedal on it already, but I sold them just a couple of weeks before I got this bike!
 
8/6

Just received the cylinders and tried out a set of decent .020 over pistons I had on the shelf; a bit more end gap than I'd like but the pistons fit nice.

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Gave the bores a nice light hone.

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Front brake caliper installed, still need to fill & bleed the system. Should have a bit of bend in that hose once the bike is on it's tires.

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(photo out of sequence)
 
8/6

Both lifter bores are chipped, but they were being run like this for some time with no issues. This is the better of the two.

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Dressed up the sharp edges.

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This lifter bore is missing a big chunk of the retaining screw side.

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Dressed up the edges.

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8/6

Thoroughly washed the bores, cleaned the gasket surfaces, masked & painted with gloss black Rust-O-Leum.

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Bada-bing, pistons happily in place. I love my ring compressors, and use them with two old chopper tweek bars to support the pistons. Works a treat. Best use of tweek bars ever!

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This lump will be reasonably complete soon...

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8/6

One intake valve had really bad scalloping from corrosion.

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One intake guide was EXTREMELY sloppy. I've never seen a guide that badly worn.

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Sad, sad, sad, sad valves.

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8/6 (another L-O-N-G day)

Cleaned up the head, gasket faces and ports, replaced the worn guide, then (later) chased the spark plug holes.

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Selected the 4 best valves from a few dozen donors I had on hand, then lapped them in to the head. MUCH better.

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Again, it's not a restoration, so it's not going to look like new.

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Noticeable improvement!
 
8/6

Head installed and torqued down, head steady installed. I used two strips of old t-shirt stuffed in the pushrod tunnels to hold them in place, then pulled them out before installing the headbolts and beginning the torquing sequence. Works every time.

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Coils installed.

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8/6

Carbs overhauled, air filters on, fuel lines started...

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The end of another long, hot day.
 
8/8

Fabricating a bushing to adapt a leftover Tarozzi rearset pedal to an "off brand" folding footpeg for the rear brake. First knock off the unnecessary shoulder...

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Next, turn down the outside diameter a bit longer than needed, then bore the I.D. to suit the footpeg thru-bolt, then use the parting tool to slice the part off the leftover stock. Less than 1 hour including setting up the lathe, rounding up all the tools and bits, turning down the bushing, and cleaning up the mess.

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Still waiting on a left side Z-Plate so I can mount it all up, but I did round up a brake cable, yoke, and trunnions, plus a bolt-up cable abutment for the pedal end. All leftovers from previous projects, kinda "free".

Now for the fun part: WIRING!

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I did some rehab work on the harness and cleaned it all up.
 
I could have left the shouldered end (of that donor aluminum bit) intact, maybe it would be more useful in the future; however, it would have been more trouble to ensure it was clamped squarely and stable before working on the eventual bushing. Oh, well.
 
8/9

Fabricated a bracket to mount a good used keyswitch, wiring all done.

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Recalled seeing something similar, so I chopped off the rotted/torn part of the old headers "just to have a look". Useable, complete, solid headers on the way already; they'll probably get spray painted, as they have lots worn-off chrome. I have an almost-new pair of replica Decibell mufflers I'm going to use.

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8/9

Just some progress pix in the sunlight for the heck of it. Timing & points covers on the way. Good Roadster seat (missing tabs) on the way also.

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Left Z-plate on the way, rear brake pedal & hardware, and left footpeg standing by.

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Not too shabby...

That brings this project up-to-date. Just got in a small box of parts including a good used rear iso thru-bolt, and a bunch of new nuts and spacers for that bolt and the z-plates. Not much else I can do 'till the bigger stuff gets here.

Ordered and confirmed shipped:

(Critical stuff)
Timing cover
Rocker oil feed pipe
OPRV

(Non-critical stuff)
Points cover cap
Timing window cap
Seat (needs mounting tabs welded on)
Left Z-plate
Header pipes
Rear hub cush rubbers

Hopefully, the critical stuff will get here before the weekend and I can fire the bike up.

Coincidental tidbit: This scruffy Combat, and my "Dunstallized" Combat, are only 28 serial numbers apart! (The black bike rolled off the assembly line after the purple one)

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