I'm a newbie wishing to know what I have. (2013)

My '69 Mercury has a red high beam indicator lens.

lazyeye6 said:

My '69 Mercury has a red high beam indicator lens.

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Yup the headlights I have has the red colored indicator light on the left side of the Ammeter. So I agree with L.A.B. the headlight is from earlier years. I misspoke in the previous thread.

So I have taken a reprieve from the electrical. And started fussing with replacing the headlight ears with the new ones. I was thinking that all that needed to be done was to loosen the uppers and lowers on the triple tree and slide the forks out with wheel in place and then replacing the ears out.

It was all going good until I noticed that the upper shock nut needed to come off before sliding through the triple tree.

I thought to myself,,,,All this to change head light ears???? I proceded by removing the top nuts. One top nut along with a long crusty spring came out. Grunchy... I poured some oil in the sleeve and shoved it back in. I didn't get it tightened back up. But that is going to wait for another day..

The other side came loose but the spring will come out 6" and no more. It doesn't look much better.


I put everything back together and just not sure when I want to open "pandoras box" again

The headlight bucket is sitting loosely in place.

I will start the process of hooking up the control levers to the wiring harness this week.

I start back in with figuring out the wiring for the capacitor pack, coils and resistors and running wires down to the timing plate.

Did the first spring come out all the way? Not good ! It should be fixed by a screw at the bottom of the fork slider. Normally it comes out some inches like the second one.
The fork damper rod is screwed into the top fork nuts.You need to loosen these and also the central fork top nut.
.

Edit: See following message

joel1 said:

So I have taken a reprieve from the electrical. And started fussing with replacing the headlight ears with the new ones. I was thinking that all that needed to be done was to loosen the uppers and lowers on the triple tree and slide the forks out with wheel in place and then replacing the ears out.

Click to expand...

Then I suggest you pay close attention to manual section G3 as the cap bolts should be attached to the damper rods which requires the forks to be compressed sufficiently for the rods to be held so the cap bolts can be unscrewed from the rods.
With the cap bolts removed, neither spring should have been free to lift out. Also, the stanchions/tubes are a taper-fit in the upper yoke so you need to free the stanchions/tubes from the yoke tapers to remove them.

http://www.classicbike.biz/Norton/Repai ... mmando.pdf
(pdf.127)

I've just seen the photo link in your first (2013) post which I hadn't noticed this time around.

This shows the '71-on yoke assembly but with the headlamp ears fitted upside down on the wrong sides of the forks!

The rear brake cable also needs re-routing over the Z-plate, it shouldn't go underneath it.



Edit:
Ok reading through the thread again, it is now clear that '137260' is another frame.

L.A.B. said:

In this brochure photo it also appears to be red rather than green.
http://www.classicbike.biz/Norton/Broch ... chure2.pdf

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Is this from a Norton brochure L.A.B.?

You'd think they could have done a little better job of lining up the gauges :shock:

dennisgb said:

Is this from a Norton brochure L.A.B.?

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Yes, the link to the brochure was included.

dennisgb said:

You'd think they could have done a little better job of lining up the gauges :shock:

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It could've been worse. :|

L.A.B. said:

It could've been worse. :|

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Ha!

I always thought the sloppy assembly was on the later bikes. The thing that is strange is this is in a sales brochure...usually things are made perfect for pictures that will sell the bikes. :shock:

L.A.B. said:

I've just seen the photo link in your first (2013) post which I hadn't noticed this time around.

This shows the '71-on yoke assembly but with the headlamp ears fitted upside down on the wrong sides of the forks!

The rear brake cable also needs re-routing over the Z-plate, it shouldn't go underneath it.



Edit:
Ok reading through the thread again, it is now clear that '137260' is another frame.

Click to expand...

Those headlight ears came with the bike that way. And I have been reading up on fork suspension repair. Replacing headlight ears seems like a chore. The person who installed those headlight ears realized afterwards that they had been installed improperly. He must have had one bad day.

I'm working on fixing up the rear brake cable.

Also, on continuing to wire the bike.

The rear brake cable was re routed correctly over the z plate.

Moving on to wiring the bike.

Also going to attempt to put the oil tank in place.

joel1 said:

The rear brake cable was re routed correctly over the z plate.

Moving on to wiring the bike.

Also going to attempt to put the oil tank in place.

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I re-routed the wire harness tonight and from all the various pics I found on google....it seems that the wiring harness is located correctly.
Yes I had to unplug some connections and re connect those back.

So I gain a little on the wiring.

I did get the oil tank mounted. I ended up mounting it and then removing it after I could not get the top rear rubber mount nut started. I first mounted the rubbers to the frame. And latter removed the rear rubber and fastened it first to the oil tank then reinstalled.

Now about the lower bolt. I found and installed the rubber but I could find no spacer. Is this going to cause a problem? Currently the tank sits on top of the lower rubber.

Enough for today.

joel1 said:

Now about the lower bolt. I found and installed the rubber but I could find no spacer. Is this going to cause a problem? Currently the tank sits on top of the lower rubber.

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I suggest you do a forum search, using the term 'oil tank bottom mount'.

L.A.B. said:

joel1 said:

Now about the lower bolt. I found and installed the rubber but I could find no spacer. Is this going to cause a problem? Currently the tank sits on top of the lower rubber.

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I suggest you do a forum search, using the term 'oil tank bottom mount'.

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Thanks L.A.B. I spent a fair amount of time researching the oil tank bottom mount topics. I have decided to provide additional support under the oil tank. I haven't decided whether or not to keep the bottom bolt installed. I certainly will not be over tightening the bottom bolt.

The additional support I'm considering adding would be a durable foam or rubber plate.

Now I'm switching into connecting to rubber lines from the oil tank to the motor. That will be tonight's project. And if their is time after that I will consider draining the remaining oil in the crankcase as well as the primary.

What are the recommendations for oils in the crankcase and primary and gearbox? Honda' took one oil but I doubt if the Britt bikes take one oil. Any suggestions?

joel1 said:

What are the recommendations for oils in the crankcase and primary and gearbox? Honda' took one oil but I doubt if the Britt bikes take one oil. Any suggestions?

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Much has been said about oil in the past, therefore I suggest you make use of the forum search again, using 'engine oil', 'gearbox oil', 'primary oil' etc..

L.A.B. said:

joel1 said:

What are the recommendations for oils in the crankcase and primary and gearbox? Honda' took one oil but I doubt if the Britt bikes take one oil. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Much has been said about oil in the past, therefore I suggest you make use of the forum search again, using 'engine oil', 'gearbox oil', 'primary oil' etc..

Click to expand...

I think you would be safe in starting with

Crankcase - Mobil Vtwin 20w50
Primary - TypeF tranny fluid
and more controversially,
Gearbox - Dexton III type tranny fluid

I agree with the gortnipper for the engine and primary, and have had very good performance in the gearbox using Redline Heavy Shockproof Gear Oil.
My bike see street use only, no track work...

Castrol 4T 20W 50 oil tank / crankcase
Castrol 10W 30 primary
Catrol Hypoy 90/130 transmission

Tonight was a a more productive night. Stopped and picked up the fluids for the bike as well as 3/8 hose for the oil tank to motor.

Got the hoses installed

Got the clutch cable connected. It seems to work. I wont know until the engine is running.

Drained the crankcase oil. Im happy to report that yes some oil came out of the crankcase. Not much. Thick nasty and black. Nevertheless I prefer any oil than no oil.

I added 1 qt of oil to the tank, removed the spark plugs and slowly kicked the bike over 12 or so times. I can't report any good results that the oil is moving down to the crankcase and back into the tank yet. We'll see. As of yet no leaks.

I added fluid to the gearbox/transmission. That took quite a bit to fill it. It must have been near empty. I still have to deal with the broken cover. It doesn't leak right now with teh motor not running but it will when the motor is running.

I removed the three caps off the primary. And removed the one nut that holds the primary on. I couldn't get the drain bolt out. I was going to leave the drain bolt in place and use a slide hammer inside one of the cap holes and remove the cover but that would have made a big mess. So I left it alone.

I poked inside one of the caps in search of oil. And yes the tip of the screw driver had oil on it. I thnk it might have been transmission fluid.
The case looked oily but dirty too. Removing the primary will be for a later date.

Oh those hideous front forks. Im going to have nightmares about those. I have nothng good to say abut them. Those are going to wait until another day.

Im tired and calling it the day.

You're doing fine so far; don't worry so much about the forks. I had the same feeling before I started on mine to replace a bad seal and some other internals, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. But don't make the same mistake I made: I neglected to support the front end ( it was sitting on the center stand) while loosening up the forks and guess what? She took a nose dive and I had to call the wife (Oh, the shame!) to bail me out. A rope to the ceiling or a block under the engine or frame would have prevented that. The manual is actually pretty good in this regard.
As for the primary, I never use the drain bolt and don't care if it never comes off. Get a longish pan to catch (most of) the fluid; you're gonna pull the cover anyway. Mine doesn't come right off, either, takes a certain amount of tapping with a rawhide mallet and pulling to get it off the locating dowels. Have a new continuous band seal on hand for re-assembly, heat the band up with hot water before fitting, and try not to twist it as you put it in place.
Hang in there; we're all rooting for you...

I have the harness wired to what I think is correct. However still no spark.

I am uploading some pics to show the different wiring.