Nortons....

I have the original dunstall fairing.
Needs a screen and some small repairs.

I think you can still get a reman screen from a few places and if not, you have enough of it to get one made easily.

Yeah, replacement screens are around.

There is a crack on one of the "tails" that I need to mend.
No big deal.

Will collect all the brackets for blasting and painting soon.
Really like the look with the fairing.

Bought more fun parts.

The stock rear wheel cleaned up well, but the front not so much. While it would function, I just didn't like it.
Most of you know that I have a great love of vintage cast wheels, I find Lesters for all my SOHC Hondas. With some searching I found some Camberry wheels for the Commando. From my understanding these will bolt straight on. The rear is 18 and the front is 19. Will have to measure the widths (I know the rear is wider then stock) to figure out what tires to run. Probably going to go with Avons.

Front wheel has a small bend/crack that can be repaired. Never had to do this before so that will be a learning experience for sure.
Hope to find someone local to Albany that can repair it. Will polish the lips, but keep the gold paint as is. It will be perfect for the rest of the bike.




Plan to make sure the bearings are in good shape and test fit them this weekend. I want to confirm that there are no special spacers or something that I need to find/make before running these. Don't thing there is, and hope that I am right.

Some other bikes that have these wheels for reference.

I don't know that I've seen those wheels before. Nice, they'll look great on the Commando.

Interesting set of wheels...look good on those bikes, something out of the ordinary.

Yeah I am a sucker for cast wheels.
My CR/CB750F and Seeley both run Lesters.


I think with some of the other "period" parts that I have for the 850 Commando it will come out well.
Not something everyone will dig, or something for PipeBurn, but will be a fun functional bike that makes me smile.

Damn those wheel are cool. Are they tubeless? Are they 18"/19"? if so and you want performance you should check out the Conti Classic attack. Radial performance in vintage sizes. i have heard nothing but good things about them but have not tried them yet myself.

Yup 19/18 and tubeless.

Coming from the car world I will never ever use a conti product.
Hated thier car tires.

Have run the avons on vintage performance bikes and had great luck.

Just so you know, Avon has a 130VB65-18 cantilever AM23 rear tire that is designed to run on a rim as narrow as a 2.15" WM3. I have used it on my CB350 race bike. It works great. It is available in the race compound and I don't know if it is available in the street compound, too.

Time to test fit some wheels.


I know these are listed as "pre MK3 Commando" wheels, but assumed some "fitment" would be needed, I was right.
I started with the rear wheel. When I had it mated to the drum it felt like the wheel bearing was not letting the drum seat properly.
When I removed the hub from the wheel I found that the bearing was not seated all the way.


The issue then changed as when everything on the wheel was bolted together the inner sleeve pushed that bearing out a bit. Some messing around seemed to get it to the point that I could install the wheel and all the spacers.
Next issue was when I tried to tighten everything down. The speedo drive, why is the speedo drive on the rear again?....did not have enough clearance. The drive was contacting the wheel hub and would not spin independently.

I think that I can add a washer under the speedo drive and take that amount of material off the larger right hand side spacer. Will probably hit up ebay for some spares to hack up.

Front has similar spacer issues.

Slightly off center.

Standard disc side spacer.


Other side.


About 1/4 inch off.


I think what I need to do is add another disc side spacer and then adjust the thickness. This wheel is set up for dual disc so the spacers seem to be different.

On a plus side I spent some time sanding the mating surface of the head steady so that it would clamp properly to the frame.



So one thing done.

Plan to degrease the engine and get it back into the frame today. Have a TON of parts that will be able to installed once the engine is back in.
Should start looking like a motorcycle again and fingers cross this gets kicked into high gear and falls together without many hiccups.

Yeah...I have had varying degrees of this sort of trouble with almost every old-stock bolt on part I have ever had. : All that aside, it keeps your brain working...keep picking away at it, you'll have 'em fitted before you know it!

Had a productive day in the garage. Lots of work was did.

Removed the gearbox and took everything back out. Sat with the print out of Mick Hemmings and followed it as best I could. Everything seems much more "happy" and how I would expect a gearbox to feel. Could not say what was wrong, or what I did differently, but my mind is now at ease that it feels better.

Spend some time and degreased the engine.



Not going for that vapor blasted new look, just trying to clean things up just a bit.

Engine ready to go back into the frame. SOOOOOOO much easier then muscling a CB750 lump into the frame.


Time to celebrate it looking more like a motorcycle.


Big thank you to xb33bsa for hooking me up with an original parts list for the 850 Commando. It keeps me from getting my iPad covered in grease!


I left all of the mounting bolts loose as per grandpaul's instructions. Next time I am in the shop I will work on getting everything tight and setting the isolastics.

Gasket change and fresh seals.
Should I do anything with the oil pump "while I am here"?



Because we cant just leave covers unpolished.



Moving along rather well.

Thrust washer me thinks, gotstobe all stacked correct.

I think that I installed the oil seal that goes over the shaft for the points backwards. I put the spring end of the seal facing away from the motor and I think it should go the other way.
Actually had it with the spring facing the engine, but it was near impossible to install.

Any advice?

in the photo I would say they both are layed on the case upside down, typically the spring is on the wet side, but it does come down to the wiper/seal and some seal in both directions.

Spring faces oil. Always. You can freeze seals to aid in installation. They don't contract like an all metal bearing, but usually enough aid in installation.

The one behind the clip is correct. The points one is wrong.

Need a spechial Norton tool to install it over the shaft.

Chugging along.

Installing some nice bits too.

New Tri-Spark coils and test fitting the head steady.


Replacing the old oil feed lines with new braided ones.




Points?
Who can really figure out how to make these work? I mean this is just to hard to deal with.....


And look! As soon as I removed that old junk I had something new that needed to be cleaned!




Carbs going back on.


Re-Keyed the bike.



Kinda almost sorta looks like a motorcycle again.
Still a bunch of small stuff to do before it fires up, but nice to at least feel like things are moving along.

Lookin good! Hows weather for a test run?

Oh and that coil hanger setup is now my new plan for the deadtail BSA It's been a major hold up, gonna have to fab it all tho.