Dutch MKIII

Very cool art deco stylish functional piece I'd keep in use too. Doesn't look at all like something jerked off a small utilitarian car.

Hi.
Thanks Slimslowslider for the photo´s. What´s the 3 extra holes for? And, do you have a spacer between the mounting plate and the swingarm?
Where in NL are you? I´m in Groningen.
Dan

The caliper was on the bike when I got it. No clue what the holes in the (crude) plate are for. I lightened it a bit, could do more. Spacer is required. I live in the east, near Hengelo.

Hi. Have bin busy making a mounting plate to fit the Lockheed caliper. Not finished yet, though.

Dan

Dan
Biscuit Boy would not be impressed with me for saying it. And I know it is a bit late now as you have it in bits. But faced with all that work to try and resolve a vibration problem, I reckon I would have sold the sucker to an unknowing Dutchman and bought another one!!

Phil.
That thought have crossed my minde many times. But I´m grown up on the back of a Commando and I´ve always wanted one. I could sell this one and buy another one, but what would I then get?
Dan

dantriumph said:

Phil.
That thought have crossed my minde many times. But I´m grown up on the back of a Commando and I´ve always wanted one. I could sell this one and buy another one, but what would I then get?
Dan

Click to expand...

Dan
I've been on Nortons all my life. I could never own anything else. Well I have, a huge string of them from BMW's to god knows what, but I always come back to a Norton.
Are you sure your vibrating Commando is not in fact an Atlas?? )

No Dan, all I was thinking, which is too late now as you are deeply into it, was that a sale and subsequent purchase of another Commando might have been easier. I'm not at all sure what your vibration problem is, but I doubt it is inside the engine. Well set up isolastics usually mask most everything from the rider. My Combat used to shake the carbi's off, and unscrew the exhaust rings, as everyone experienced. I used to blast along in bliss, until the exhaust note got very loud and the bike then suddenly stopped due missing minor items like the carburettors!

Sounds to me like you have an odd one out Commando and it is a shame you have to go to so much trouble to try and remedy it.
But then, I'm the type of guy who trades his car when it gets dirty. Drives my girlfriend nuts! I buy new bed sheets rather than wash the old ones!

Good luck buddy, I hope you can resolve it. Vibration is a curse and has no place on a Commando!

I've spent years looking into piston cooling by oil jets in various engines to find Japanese research showing it take .6 liters a min. in pistons our size to cool crown 100'F. If the brief twice a cycle spritz prevented a seizure it was wrist pin lube but for sure nothing to do with any cooling. Still oil aimed up there is a good thing and a better way to do it is like old Ducati's and some others but a notch cut in edge of rod big end on either side so the spray out of shells get a good bit directed upward to piston can collide with it on down strokes. Its was/is still common practice for racers to block Norton oil holes and they don't seem seizure prone doing so. On the other hand as so little oil lost twice per rotation its basically a non issue either way. HD did lots of research on oil cooling heads to trash the idea as didn't cool head temps at all but fired the oil w/o a car size radiator.

Carrillo offers tiny oil spriz'ers
http://www.cp-carrillo.com/Tech/RodTech ... fault.aspx

Effective rod big end shoulder notches spraying up full 360' of rotation. Can be made at top center or staggered either side of center on either side of big end.

http://www.astraownersclub.com/vb/showt ... zlet/page2

http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=142503

As with all prototype parts, we ran into some small glitches. Carrillo left out the oil jet notches from the thrust faces of the rods (an oversight in trying to get us the rod as quickly as possible). These are not present on the stock rods because Honda incorporated an oil jet into their beam design to spray the pistons with oil to keep them cool.

Hi.
Took the last 1½ hours off Friday, to do a bit of Work on the Norton. Got the holes for the lifter Blocks lined up and bores.




I gave the cylinder a good blast and painted it yesterday. Then baked if for an hour. I already had picked up a spray can to paint it Black, but changed my minde and went for grey. It´s a Little shiny.


The bushes for the camshaft, needed replacing. Posted the cases to Holland Norton Works on monday. On Tuesday I recived an email from HNW that he actually also needed the camshaft. Why didn´t I think of that??? Posted the camshaft on wednesday, he recived it on thursday. Got email on Friday evening, sayin that the cases was ready. That´s what I call quick service :lol:
Dan

Dan, just read your post.
My '77 Mk111 vibrated also.
It had different rods, one was a D rod.
The cylinder wasn't machined to sit flat on the case, it leaned to the left.
The head was porous and the "machined"?? mating surface looked like the tool was well past it's use by date.
Push rod was rubbing in the cylinder.

It came with all the history and I couldn't see where anyone had rebuilt the engine (from receipts) so at 12 thousand miles I think it was built that way?
All fixed now but very disappointing. Maybe built from reject parts by the receivers?

Graeme

Hi.
GRM 450. The rods have bin replaced, the new secondhand cylinder have bin rebores and checked, all mating surfaces are good. Just hoping the oilpressure will be better now.

I´m almost finished with the mounting plate for the Lockheed caliper.

I want to lighten it a bit, but how much can I remove? Would this be okay?
Caliper and mounting plate is 671 gram lighter then the original. The drilled disc is 302 gram lighter then a stock. So a weightsaving of almost 1 kg (2,2 Ibs). the rim is Akront alu as well, no idea how much lighter that would be over standard chrome, if any.

Dan

Hi.

Got the inlet rockerarms and spindle fitted to the head today. Just to finde out that the new one piece alloy rocker spindle covers doesn´t hold the spindle. When pushed fully home, the spindle is 1,5mm further in then the head. Would it be possible to fit 1mm washers behinde the spindle to space them out a bit?
I haven´t fitted the exhausts rockerarms yet.
The new spindles are 59,5mm, same as the old one.

Dan

Hi.
I´ve got the crank and cylinder fitted. Now playing around with the cam timing. It´s a JS stage 1 cam. Does any of you have experience with this cam and the timing of it?

Set according to the marks, the inlet cam center was 106 degree. I´ve moved the sprockets and it´s now on 101, so a little filing on the camshaft key should put it spot on the 102 recommended by Jim.

I don´t get much help from my apprentice


Dan

I woud buy a vernier type cam adjuster rather than filing a piece from the key, I know this has been done by others, but that is a bodged fix in my opinion.
Just my 2c worth..

Hi Peter.
I was thinking of buying a Vernier cam adjuster, but heard some bad experience about them. Do you have one on your bike?
Dan

Dan, I do not have a vernier type adjuster on my Commando, I never verified the actual cam timing, but I know that on the original factory fitted camshaft the timing can be out by a few degrees.
I am not aware of any problems with the vernier adjusters, maybe other forum members can chime in here with their experiences.

Those really interested in degreeing a cam for performance edge will tend to run the engine too fast/hard for the vernier adjuster locker pin to stay in place so can well back out till sound of valves bashing pistons a few turns before silence. Could use venier for easier experimenting then weld it up or configure plain sprocket & cogs to set cam where ya like it. When my Peel got stuck throttle after 7000 miles I found the pin was very loose and staring to stand proud of its holes so will be rid of it after some experiments.

Hi all.

A little update. Have done some decent Progress, despite making a couple of stupit mistakes, like turning both isolastocs the wrong way around.
The mountingplate for the rearbrake is finish.

The engine is fitted. The new exhaust is fitted, the left exhaust was spot on, the right needed a little fetteling. All electrical is fitted and the battery is fully charged, but no light or ignition. Was busy last night, but couldn´t figur out why there was no light or ignition, so I left it and will go on today.

I also found this dyno result from 2012. By the it had standard rods, pistons, Megacycle 560-NR cam, standard valve and springs, Boyer ignition and a single Mikuni.

It now has JS long rods, stage 1 cam and BSA followers, JS valves and beehive springs, SU carb, Pazon smart fire ignition and Comnoz breather valve. So I´m curious what it´s going to be when it´s ready.
I hope to get it started today.
Dan

What a high time you are having creating such striking views. Creep up on using that potent rear stopper. Best wishes no nicks and kicks right off to 50 hp.

It's alive
More info and photos will follow.