Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec start

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Fast Eddie said:

J. M. Leadbeater said:

No but just for a laugh go on the web and look up the Quiet Power Drive site and watch the electric starter system Bob Oswald developed for Triumph twins MANY years ago for Meriden......so simple. Friend fitted one to a Commando..works perfectly...and another friend fitted the diaphragm spring clutch and belt system to his TR6 along with the QPD starter system..the road test reported it 'a revelation'......and compared to the crap Triumph and Norton fitted...... I laugh when I see some of the systems out there....but bullshit always did baffle brains....

Click to expand...

And precisely what is the point of looking at a system that is no longer available?

By your own admission, you sir have baffled a lot of brains...

Click to expand...

I think most of us are just about sick to death of the constant repetition, disparaging comments, insults, lengthy off-topic rambles and general downbeat content of his posts so it's time for 'J.M. Leadbeater' to go.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Quiet Power Drive is currently there and sells an elec start, a belt primary, and a belt final drive. I just got off the phone with the owner. He hand fits the elec start and I believe it is about the same price as the CNW conversion. Just setting the record straight on this.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

QPD But he is in semi retirement and would take months to produce a kit, none in stock all made to order and made to suit his timetable. Now if you need one for a Triumph where his is the only one fine, but for a Commando there are currently 2 alternatives with a 3rd in testing.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

lazyeye6 said:

I am scratching my head, though, about a couple of issues which arose after the installation: 1) Much of the time the transmission will now not
snick into first gear from neutral without rolling the bike forward or backwards a couple of feet. 2) The transmission occasionally goes into a false neutral when shifting. 3) When downshifting from 4th there is sometimes a lag period of several seconds before the drive engages. I had suspected that these issues were drive belt or drive chain tensioning issues, but both are carefully adjusted to the manual/directions. I welcome any thoughts about this.

Would I do this install again? YES, without a doubt! Otherwise I was going to have to give up riding my '74 Roadster because I was losing the athleticism needed to kick it over, and it hurt.

Click to expand...

I opened the primary and the transmission inspection cover and discovered that the clutch was set up too tight. I loosened up the adjustment
screw and now the transmission functions perfectly just as it did before the ES installation. This was obviously my error. I can't believe how nice this electric start is.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

lazyeye6 said:

This was obviously my error. I can't believe how nice this electric start is.

Click to expand...

Good on you for ratting yourself out! It's always so much more helpful to the group to know the actual cause of a malady.
I'm drifting towards an e-start myself; thanks for your postings.

Nathan

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

I would like to give a six month report on the CNW electric starter. Ours was installed by the fine folks at Special Tool Solutions in Jacksonville FL in May. The installation was top notch and the starter has performed flawlessly. It is wired into the top black button on the right side Lucas switch of our 73 Norton which works without any problem. The updated agm battery spins the starter effortlessly and the bike starts immediately. It also helps to have Amal Premier carbs and a Pazon ignition to eliminate any other variables. The ham can airbox won't work with this system but a K&N filter is able to squeeze in the space. The backside of the airbox is retained so no need to relocate the left side ignition switch. If you happen to stall while in gear just pull in the clutch, hit the button and continue on. No need to find neutral.This has been a great update to a Norton we have had 39 years and 55000 miles. This has been the best upgrade we have done to our Norton and when you get tired of kicking like Peter Egan reported this month in Cycle World , install a starter from CNW!

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

My E-start is still on the bench, waiting for other projects to be finished before launching into it. It's so beautifully finished, I hate the thought of covering it up! Encouraging to hear all the positives - I know it's going to be great!

And since a member has been given his walking papers, is (was) "J.M. Leadbeater" the same guy as "Belt Drive Man"? BDM trolled on another forum I was on quite a few years ago, and their responses are so similar, it's just gotta be the same guy. If this is common knowledge, I missed the memo, but thank-you to l.A.B. for pulling the plug on this crap-ola!

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Brithit said:

is (was) "J.M. Leadbeater" the same guy as "Belt Drive Man"?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

I say good riddance to him.

Now my clutch is going to start slipping :shock:

Glen

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

worntorn said:

I say good riddance to him.

Now my clutch is going to start slipping :shock:

Glen

Click to expand...

good on you Glen :lol:

Ashley

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Matt installed my e-start as the last act in build 104, and it is a remarkable piece of kit. As others indicated, the motor starts immediately and purposefully.
I have no experience with any of the other starter providers, but a big difference between this gear and that from another vendor is that with the alternatives, you don't get Matt at the other end of the telephone. Leaving the excellent design/execution out of the equation for a moment, that alone would be enough reason to go with the CNW unit.

But it IS well-designed and it IS executed beautifully. And it starts instantly.

I say go for it.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Thought I would give my feedback. But, as many of you know it could be viewed as biased. My shop designed and built the CNW Electric Start Conversion.

With that being said, here is my feedback.

We have 3 conversion kits in operation at my shop. Two are on CNW builds (119 installed by Matt and 99 installed here at my shop) We also have the original test unit on Stan Keyes bike, an Interstate with 250,000 miles on it. All three units have performed perfectly. Each has been on a bike for over a year. The test unit has 4,000 miles on it, and over 7,000 starts (when we test drive the bike, we stop and restart the bike at every stop sign and red light)

Additionally we started using the belt drive system on Stan Keyes' two Commando race bikes. These are high compression engines and are raced hard. Stan took the national championship this year in one class and second place in another class. There were 20 races and close to 50 or 60 practice sessions, plus several track days. We experienced no belt failures. We did loose a belt guard on the front pulley, but this was due to the guard not being pinned (our screw up) This caused the belt to come off the front pulley, but we never damaged or lost a belt all year. And, we never changed or adjusted the belts all year.

One thing that was found early on: Matt provides a new crank seal with every kit. Since we are changing to a dry primary, it is best to go ahead and change the seal. It is hard to tell if your crank seal has a small leak in a wet primary. But vey easy to see in a dry primary.

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

G81 Can Cycle said:

One thing that was found early on: Matt provides a new crank seal with every kit. Since we are changing to a dry primary, it is best to go ahead and change the seal. It is hard to tell if your crank seal has a small leak in a wet primary. But vey easy to see in a dry primary.

Click to expand...

What is the process to change this crank seal?

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Yellow_Cad said:

G81 Can Cycle said:

One thing that was found early on: Matt provides a new crank seal with every kit. Since we are changing to a dry primary, it is best to go ahead and change the seal. It is hard to tell if your crank seal has a small leak in a wet primary. But very easy to see in a dry primary.

Click to expand...

What is the process to change this crank seal?

Click to expand...

Easy to do since it's fully exposed when the old primary is removed. Carefully pry the old one out and replace with new one. You can use a pipe (that fits over the crank) with the correct diameter to fit the seal and tap it back into place evenly. This way you don't risk damaging the seal and ensure that it's fully seated

It has to be said that even with a new seal, there will most likely be some blow by. We never knew how how much when running wet primaries but with a dry one, you will see some oil below the alternator with miles. Easy to remove the outer cover when you are running dry though, so its just a matter of wiping it out every now and then

Matt / Colorado Norton Works

http://www.coloradonortonworks.com

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

cNw said:

snip

It has to be said that even with a new seal, there will most likely be some blow by. We never knew how how much when running wet primaries but with a dry one, you will see some oil below the alternator with miles. Easy to remove the outer cover when you are running dry though, so its just a matter of wiping it out ever now and then

Matt / Colorado Norton Works

http://www.coloradonortonworks.com

Click to expand...

Good observation Matt...
Over 25 years ago I too "discovered" this phenomenon. Since then at all local or INOA National rally tech sessions I give about the crank seal area, I recommend polishing the seal surface on the crank after installing new mains. The little scratches are microscopic razor blades that are hell on new seals. Then we wonder why the oil comes out. :roll:

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Any progress on the high grade MK3 starter parts?

Glen

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

It's been a while since I've been on the forum,I started following the thread. I'm 100% satisfied with my bike which Matt did the conversion to its one of the best values far as a upgrade for my bike goes,it's been 100% reliable,never failed to start in a instant,really nice to look at too !
Jeff

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

zefer said:

It's been a while since I've been on the forum,I started following the thread. I'm 100% satisfied with my bike which Matt did the conversion to its one of the best values far as a upgrade for my bike goes,it's been 100% reliable,never failed to start in a instant,really nice to look at too !
Jeff

Click to expand...

What battery and charge system do you have?

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

Hi, murray at cycle craft engineering was asked to fit a cnw elec start to a bike he had previously built for a customer, we were impressed at the quality of the product, the only comments are the crankshaft pulley fouled on the crankcase, cnw was able to grind the inner face so problem solved, we wanted to use the existing starter button on the left switch block so we had to swap terminal 85 and 86 around on the relay socket. murray also made an air cleaner to retain the stock look, he is going to make these available to purchase , more pictures on his Facebook page, i have included a rough scetch of the wiring to use the existing starter switch, the coil in the relay is polarity sensitive as there is a blocking diode, a great product with after sales support to match, cheers pete

Re: Any stories successful or otherwise on the CNW elec star

oooooo, love that air filter. That was the one thing I was concerned about, losing the original look. Does the ig switch still mount to the cleaner as stock?