play in the clutch shaft ?

After cleaning out my oily clutch plates and reassembling I've noticed a bit more noise from the primary chaincase. I thought it might've been "clutchplate chatter" tho tbh i'm not sure what cp chatter would sound like. The power thru the drive is all there with the clean plates but feels possibly a bit rougher running on the 3rd gear (still trying to find out the gearbox history from previous owner re layshaft bearing etc) I pulled the inspection cover on the clutch adjuster bolt and noticed a bit of play or wobble, not much but definitely there. Is a bit of wobble usual here and if a bearing wear issue, safe to run till the autumn for a full disassemble ? When i took the original clutch adjuster bolt out, the thread was badly notched and worn under the locking nut so that was replaced with new but everything else seemed good from what i could see (and my limited experience). Gears all select cleanly and the machine idles fine in neutral, no movement in the kick start lever or gear selector and plenty of oomf on the throttle. Any ideas out there ?

Stu it's very easy to get that nut tightened up again. The retaining washer merely holds it from falling off and get home to fix/re-tighten it. Hopefully he mainshaft threads aren't damaged by running around by this loose clutch too.

Stu the wobble is rather common but not at all normal. There are a few items that can allow slop in basket stability, like clutch center bearing but much more likely the main shaft sleeve gear bushes are worn. Not that big a deal for triplex chain alignment tolerance so likely can ride a long ways and fix up later at your time and pace. There is some risk of wearing down the shifter dog faces when bushes get too sloppy, so may find shifting hanging up more and more. The clutch nut will have nothing to do with this, UNLESS over tightened to shear past the locator circlip.

If you are talking about the clutch hub with play and a slight wobble, then this is seemingly normal. I do not know if this is right, but i have never seen one that does not seem to rock ever so slightly at least.

You have to account that you have this whirling mass sticking out from this spindly shaft and the counter shaft riding in bushings. There almost has to be some play expected. I think that even with an outrigger, the hub still rides outboard from the inner on a single bearing.

I had 3 AMC's that had undetectable wobble by eye ball or feel, so only a micro meter could detect any slack which was so little - belt drive would stay on at speed w/o the pulley side plates. There is a Huge mis understanding and use of the terms Normal vs Common, the medical business is one of the greatest abusers of these meanings and so are novice Nortoneers. Ancient tradition is just use it till a show stopper then go through tranny damage and use it up again. Running in lower gears with gear oil that can't get into the sleeve bushes is fastest way to eat up the clutch stability. If ya don't feel guilty running long in lower gears then might still be considered a Norton novice or knowledgabe Tweetie Bird Hooligan, with motto " I get a spanking in the morning... But I do it anyway!!

To be clear - I'll take the access plate off the primary chaincase with the bike idling away in neutral and it seems maybe a bit noiser in there. The clutch adjuster nut (the one you take out to make way for the diaphragm compressor tool) has a wee bit of dance to it - I'd say it describes a circle maybe one millimetre (!) wider than the dia of the spindle end... Reading these replies is heartening tho - lots of realistic information and a bit of perspective for an aspirant nortoneer. Hobot - ah like yr patter

Ugh, stu, my clutch wobble learning curve balls occurred, after a too tight final drive chain event so fixed everything obvious, bushes and bearings, to get rock solid stable basket, that still wobbled like yours, to finally learn how tranny shafts do not bend like a bar over a knee but like a cock screw or candy cane spiral. Scroll for it...