I owned a '75 MkIII a few years ago and always thought it was the best bike I ever rode. I'm now contemplating buying a MkIII project which has had the transmission shifter switch from the left side to the right. Is it likely that some permanent damage was down to it in the change-over or is this something that could be easily switched back? Also the owner says the shift pattern of the swapped tranny is one up and three down which is contrary to the '75 pattern. So I thought the transmission was from an earlier model. This brings up my second question: can an earlier Commando transmission be put in a MkIII and could it be easily removed and replaced with the right one?
Norton MkIII Transmission
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<---That has a '75 Mk III transmission converted back to right side shift. No harm no foul. Converting back will mean swapping out the inner and outer g/b covers and their associated parts and adding back the Rube Goldberg crossover shift shaft and it's geared shifter shaft stub to the primary. Not to mention puttting the brake pedal back on the right side, if that was a part of the conversion.
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The Mk3 cross-shaft and gearshift pedal shaft are connected by gears inside the primary case which reverse the movement between pedal and gearbox therefore changing it to RH shift reverses the Mk3 gearbox shift to the previous one up, three down pattern.
If Mk3, the gearbox number (assuming it has one) stamped on the top lug should either match the engine and frame plate number or be in the Mk3 serial number range (325001+).
A Mk3 gearbox shell would have a neutral switch (or at least the hole for one) and the quadrant would be retained by a circlip instead of a bolt.
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