My '73 850 rebuild..

/groan

So, I spent about an hour this evening trying to remove the bearings on the front wheel so I could get it ready for some major cleaning.. Failed. Going to have to use a press to get the stupid things out.

The bearing on the disc side (naturally, the one that costs $60+) is shot. The other bearing is probably OK, but it's only $5-$10.

The bearings came out OK from the rear wheel and we'll be able to clean it up tomorrow.

Does anyone know of a reasonable place to get the front bearing that's shot on mine? Andover Norton lists it as part #06-7688 and calls it a "Bearing, Ball, Double Row, 17x40x16mm".

Maybe I should just go to the local industrial bearing place in town to see about getting a replacement..

-Jordan

I have been getting all my bearings at a local place, Bearings INc. I did my entire bike including some upgrades, for around $200, that included new FAG superblends. Transmission bearings, both wheels, steering, and some seals.

It can't hurt to give your local bearing house a call with your bearing numbers. Any bearing I buy I check locally because the cost is usually considerably lower than a motorcycle parts vendor.

Well, that was interesting. We attempted to use a press to remove the bearings, to no avail. Finally, after a suggestion from someone who had recently stripped down a bunch of rims to part out, we pushed each bearing out from the inside using a hammer and a metal rod. Sure enough, it worked like a charm.

After that, we cleaned up the bearings (both will be replaced) and then acid washed the rims. I can't believe how disgusting they WERE and how nice they look NOW. We still need to polish them up a bit more, but they're already a ton cleaner.

Anyway, that's it for now.. Time to go sell my soul for some new bearings!

-jordan

KSUWildcatFan said:

Well, that was interesting. We attempted to use a press to remove the bearings, to no avail. Finally, after a suggestion from someone who had recently stripped down a bunch of rims to part out, we pushed each bearing out from the inside using a hammer and a metal rod. Sure enough, it worked like a charm.

After that, we cleaned up the bearings (both will be replaced) and then acid washed the rims. I can't believe how disgusting they WERE and how nice they look NOW. We still need to polish them up a bit more, but they're already a ton cleaner.

Anyway, that's it for now.. Time to go sell my soul for some new bearings!

-jordan

Click to expand...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

Fingers crossed, bearings ordered. Much cheaper than a lot of the bearings I found, and 100% feedback with no negatives for over a year.

-Jordan

Any idea where the bearings are produced? Hope it's not Portugal! :shock:

nomadwarmachine said:

Any idea where the bearings are produced? Hope it's not Portugal! :shock:

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No idea. Guess I'll find out once they get here!

-jordan

Maybe think of painting inside of rims with a rust paint and leaving out the rim lock covering up the hole from inside with a rubber patch?

Eliminating rim lock? Is that not one of the rituals that every Norton owner must endure?

I would be happy to do this next time my tire is off. But won't all the Combat torque rip the tube stem to shreds?

batrider said:

Eliminating rim lock? Is that not one of the rituals that every Norton owner must endure?

I would be happy to do this next time my tire is off. But won't all the Combat torque rip the tube stem to shreds?

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I have no intention to remove the rim lock. /shrug

nomadwarmachine said:

Any idea where the bearings are produced? Hope it's not Portugal! :shock:

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The single-row bearings are from china. The double-row bearings are from India (ZNL bearings). Hope they aren't junk! We shall see.

-Jordan

KSUWildcatFan said:

nomadwarmachine said:

Any idea where the bearings are produced? Hope it's not Portugal! :shock:

Click to expand...

The single-row bearings are from china. The double-row bearings are from India (ZNL bearings). Hope they aren't junk! We shall see.

-Jordan

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I got my Corbin Gunfighter seat yesterday and it looks awesome. In talking to dad about it, he suggested instead of cutting 4-4.5" off the front of it to examine the bottom of the pan and shape as needed to fit the fender. It will push the seat back essentially all the way to the taillight mount, but it should be doable. Worst case scenario, we'd still have to cut a bit off the front of the seat (although much less).

The biggest obstacle, of course, would be in re-engineering Corbin's new pin-lock system, but I think it could be done since it's just a bracket that secures to the shock tower..

Has anyone considered this approach while trying to adapt a gunfighter to an interstate tank?



Beautiful!

-Jordan

Alright, well, we made some progress tonight!

The bike is now off the lift and onto sawhorses, so we can work with the motor (it needs to come out so we can paint everything black) and the rest of the internals of this bike.

Rear wheel (CLEAN HUB!) before bearings were installed:





Rear wheel with bearings installed, new inner tubes, and new Cush drive buffers:




Front wheel before installing bearings:




Bearings installed!:



Single Mikuni:



Working with the rear axle to get the wheel back on:



GROSS!:



RH4 head:



Made it onto the sawhorses!:



Some pictures with the new Gunfighter seat and the Interstate tank:






The plan for the seat is as follows:

Instead of cutting 4-4.5" off of the front of the seat, our plan is to re-shape the bottom of the pan so that the seat doesn't curve up in the back like it did in our mock-up pictures. We'll re-locate the Corbin pin-lock system as well. This should result in a Gunfighter seat that isn't stubby and chopped up like most end up being in order to fit the Interstate tank. PLUS, it could be used on a roadster later if it were so desired (would probably just need some padding added in the spots where we have to trim down the pan).

Anyway, we're moving on this project, however slowly..

-Jordan

You might want to inspect your inner primary. By the looks of all the shiney on yur swingarm, I suspect your chain has been eating away at it.

850cmndo said:

You might want to inspect your inner primary. By the looks of all the shiney on yur swingarm, I suspect your chain has been eating away at it.

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That would not surprise me in the least. We'll get there.

The goal tonight was to get the wheels put back together, with tires mounted and bearings installed. That had to be done to get the bike on the sawhorses so we could move on to cleaning up the internals (and removing the CRAPPY welded exhaust). We should be able to really start rolling on this thing now that it's up on sawhorses. Dad is going to work on the seat in his spare time. I hope he can make it work so we don't have to hack the front off..

-Jordan

KSUWildcatFan said:

The plan for the seat is as follows:

Instead of cutting 4-4.5" off of the front of the seat, our plan is to re-shape the bottom of the pan so that the seat doesn't curve up in the back like it did in our mock-up pictures. We'll re-locate the Corbin pin-lock system as well. This should result in a Gunfighter seat that isn't stubby and chopped up like most end up being in order to fit the Interstate tank. PLUS, it could be used on a roadster later if it were so desired (would probably just need some padding added in the spots where we have to trim down the pan)

-Jordan

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Coming along nicely. The only thing I would add is if you are going to be sitting that far back you may want to think about rear sets, but ultimately is up to you however comfortable you are once you have the seat fit.

pelican said:

KSUWildcatFan said:

The plan for the seat is as follows:

Instead of cutting 4-4.5" off of the front of the seat, our plan is to re-shape the bottom of the pan so that the seat doesn't curve up in the back like it did in our mock-up pictures. We'll re-locate the Corbin pin-lock system as well. This should result in a Gunfighter seat that isn't stubby and chopped up like most end up being in order to fit the Interstate tank. PLUS, it could be used on a roadster later if it were so desired (would probably just need some padding added in the spots where we have to trim down the pan)

-Jordan

Click to expand...

Coming along nicely. The only thing I would add is if you are going to be sitting that far back you may want to think about rear sets, but ultimately is up to you however comfortable you are once you have the seat fit.

Click to expand...

Indeed. If it's not comfortable once we get it together, we'll have to look at some other options. I wanted to have the possibility of changing seating position while riding--sit up and beg, leaning forward ala cafe racer, etc. I figured hacking off 4-4.5" of the front of the seat would pretty much limit it to sit-up-and-beg and it seemed like it was going to be pretty tight.. Idk.

-Jordan

Haha.. The wife snapped this picture while we were working:

KSUWildcatFan said:

Haha.. The wife snapped this picture while we were working:

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Do you have a no wife/girlfriend in the garage rule looks like the photo was taken through a hole in the door .....

plj850 said:

Do you have a no wife/girlfriend in the garage rule looks like the photo was taken through a hole in the door .....

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Lol.. The other half of the building is the sewing/craft room for the girls. The picture was taken through the doorknob hole (not installed yet, obviously!). Apparently my son kept peering through the door to see what we were working on..

-Jordan