1970ish Norton rebirth and rebuild

Well I am starting to do a build on my Norton Commando. Its a bit of a bitza, originally a fastback that caught fire (no fiberglass left there), its blown up once too and now I have dug out all the parts, it is looking like its going to turn into a roadster, if I cant get the fastback tank, seat and tail (I already have a roadster tank).
From living various places over the years, including a Bridge in Brisbane, the bike has been kept on a friends farm and when we dug it out of the tin shed recently, it was a bit of a mess, snake skins, possum fluff, dead and very degraded rats, hornets nests (wasps mud houses) in everything but at least it was generally dry and the motor bits were wrapped up and only a bit trashed. Oh, those lanolin sprays, like Lanotech, the ants love the stuff, dont go there, particularly in Australia where there is lots a critters that like sheep fat. Lucky I greased the crank journals with good old petroleum goop.

Am in process of getting started, first the frame is to be straightened by a local guy in Brisbane, Dave Kellet, and I am growing my Norton brain. Have brought some new vernier isolastics and now have to get the cradle and bits cleaned up and assembled for the frame work, where are those bolts and what do they look like?
Am going to try one of those fancy head steady's too, and slowly see what parts I need, what is to be scrubbed and polished and what is to be frowned upon.
I seem to have lost some stuff or don't remember, seat, stand, side cover etc and have two of other bits like swingarms, rusty wheels, must of been that early swap meet daze I was in 20 years ago.
Anyway, see how we go

Good luck and have fun!

I have a '70 commando, but with a later model disc brake front wheel. The '70 model has some unique features to it's model year. You don't hear a lot about the differences of the '70 model here mostly because most people have later models where some of the '70's issues were changed.

It has the camshaft timed breather port for the crankcase. The last time I put my bottom end back together, I installed those stock parts, because there wasn't a better option at the time. I think the Jim Schmidt reed breather would be a better breather than the timed disc set up and it bolts right onto the case, so you leave the stock timed discs out of your reassembly. You can search the topic here and find out more info.

Also the '70 model has a single bolt swingarm tube which allows a sloppy fit which shows up as play in the rear swingarm. I've heard people with '70 models say they never had an issue with poor handling, but my bike rode like a snake going down the road for decades until I discovered the solution here on this site. If you search "kegler clamps" you'll see the full explanation of the problem.

There are a few other things like non-superblend main bearings, the non-cush drive rear hub, dual 12 volt coils, and steering yokes with less offset.

The main bearings and the breather are deep in the engine, so you need to do them early in your build. Good luck!

bsasteve said:

where are those bolts and what do they look like?

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Using the Andover site in conjunction with a parts book and shop manual will help you lots

https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-drawings/10
https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-drawings/9

http://www.eurooldtimers.com/eng/manual/76-norton-750-commando-1968-1970-.html

http://britmoto.com/ for manuals

for other stuff - https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/technical-information.2265/

Thanks for the info, I will have to chill the logarithmic learning curve and check it all out as I progress, there are lots of Norton morphs over the models and some appear a bit going backwards, but being an engineer I will probably over analyse, have a fascination with gadgets, disregard whats is fashion, but try and deviate from trying not to be frugal (tight arse), and do a few risk assessments (on reliability that is).

Well it looks like I have some cushy rear wheels and lota of other spare parts I picked up over 20 years ago in a daze of swap meetitus, lots to choose from and many a bit rusted and dead. I have seen a bit on forums on the weasy breathing and it looks like the early ones were somewhat ok compared a later model with the breather at the back, but I will look at the reed thingy you mentioned. .
The swing arm I will look at the info, superblends, at least for the drive side and a good ball should be ok for the timing side if I can get the higher load ones, Im not racing. I have to sort through all the bolts and nuts yet so i can dummy build the thing and see what I dont have.
Thanks for the info

When in doubt, throttle out

Best of luck with your rebuild/project. That's a great tag line you've got there: When in doubt, throttle out.