- Joined
- Mar 21, 2015
- Messages
- 5
New to these forums and as of a week ago I'm a new owner of a 1969 750 Commando (my first Norton).
When riding the bike home, the clutch dragged horribly and also took forever to completely catch. No big deal, I planned on going through this thing and knew that stuff like carbs and clutches were going to need attention. I've read all I could find Including the David Comeau "easy pull, no drag" along with his Norton Commando Clutch Pack articles, the "Commando Clutch Plate Information" article by Fred Eaton.
First thing noticed when I pulled the clutch apart was that the bike had been upgraded to a 850 style clutch using 4 Plain and 5 Friction plates. So I get the dial calipers out and find that the plain plates are still at 0.080" but are without any grooves, and the friction plates are measuring out from 0.116" to 0.117". So I take a little run over to my local Norton shop and buy a set of 5 Barnett friction plates. I throw the calipers on the stack (5 friction 4 plain & the pressure plate) and it comes up 0.070" short of the recommended "late clutch" stack height of 1.172"!!! I do a double take and measure the pressure plate alone, which comes up with a thickness of 0.173", which is much less than the 0.227" David Comeau reports. I look at the clutch basket and see what appears to be a plain clutch plate welded to the clutch basket:
I'm guessing this could be a custom (thicker) backing plate as discussed by Comeau? I'm open for suggestions and directions I could go with next to sort this thing out.
Thanks in advance!
When riding the bike home, the clutch dragged horribly and also took forever to completely catch. No big deal, I planned on going through this thing and knew that stuff like carbs and clutches were going to need attention. I've read all I could find Including the David Comeau "easy pull, no drag" along with his Norton Commando Clutch Pack articles, the "Commando Clutch Plate Information" article by Fred Eaton.
First thing noticed when I pulled the clutch apart was that the bike had been upgraded to a 850 style clutch using 4 Plain and 5 Friction plates. So I get the dial calipers out and find that the plain plates are still at 0.080" but are without any grooves, and the friction plates are measuring out from 0.116" to 0.117". So I take a little run over to my local Norton shop and buy a set of 5 Barnett friction plates. I throw the calipers on the stack (5 friction 4 plain & the pressure plate) and it comes up 0.070" short of the recommended "late clutch" stack height of 1.172"!!! I do a double take and measure the pressure plate alone, which comes up with a thickness of 0.173", which is much less than the 0.227" David Comeau reports. I look at the clutch basket and see what appears to be a plain clutch plate welded to the clutch basket:
I'm guessing this could be a custom (thicker) backing plate as discussed by Comeau? I'm open for suggestions and directions I could go with next to sort this thing out.
Thanks in advance!