Severe Oil Leak

I'm not sure I feel comfortable asking him to pay for some of the repairs. That may be a common thing to do amongst writers like minded. Then again on the other hand I did pay a pretty penny for this bike. Anyone want to make me nauseous by taking a guess on how much this is going to cost if I had it done?

This might be a tall order but where should I start? Other than the tear down process of course.|

What I can't get around is the lack of the overhead line, it looks as if it was never there, if so then what was happening to the oil as it should have been spurting out the second outlet from the dual banjo right from the first start and even when idling. Is the second banjo outlet or the banjo totally blocked and it not until the hose melted that oil started leaking. That head looks like its not seen any oil at all.

htown16 said:

I see damage to the top of the valve shown by the metal shavings. The valves also ran without lube so the guides may be damaged. Not to mention damage to the rockers and shafts. If it was my bike there is no question I would tear the motor apart. I would split the cases also so that I could have a look at the big end rod bearings and see if low oil pressure damaged them .

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Yes dry as a bone and metal shavings can be seen on the top of the valve cap. Engine will need to be torn down and assessed...likely more damage with no oil pressure to bottom end. Sorry for the bad news. I would be on the PO big time.

Complete rebuild done by a professional around 3$K depending on number of parts that need to be replaced. Damage to crank or other major parts could be more.

Fuck me runnin...well. I suppose the diy route would be cheaper, time consuming I enjoy that. It's just it'll be pretty costly also since all the parts I've seen for these bikes aren't cheap either.

It's gonna cost you plenty!

one question,
Does the broken/melted plastic oil line look like it was melted and pinched off? If so, it was done intentionally.
disconnecting the oil feed to the top end will stop the oil from getting through or around the guides and smoking.
I am assuming that there was an issue to begin with, those oil lines may break, but they don't just disappear.
Why was it removed?

If it were my problem, what I would do is:

.Squirt some oil into the rockers and down the pushrod tubes.
.Kick it over and see if oil is comes out of the melted plastic line.
.If it doesn't - find out why.
.If it does - hook up the new oil lines, fire it up and see what happens.
.Once warm, check oil pressure to determine how bad the bottom end is damaged.
.Assume that the head is damaged and that it is gonna smoke. (fried guides).
.Expect that at the very minimum you are gonna have excessive wear on the top end from running dry.
.Try to work some overtime, you're gonna need the $$$.

Your engine may not be dead, but I bet that it has been severely hurt.
If the engine is cooked, running it WITH oil to check pressure ain't going to make it any worse.

Again, I would highly recommend you load the bike up and take it to Big D Cycle in Dallas. Have them do an assessment of the damage and what it would take to fix it. Based on what they say this will give you something to negotiate with seller. Keith Martin that runs Big D is a straight shooter and has forgottem more about old Brit bikes than most of us know. This isn't your fault. The guy that fixed it before you fubared it. Even if you do the work yourself, Keith can give some input and sell you the parts.

Wow, so dry it's dusty in there. And it ran??? Nortons are tough.
Jaydee

Get your money back mate. That bike has been repaired by a worm. What else could have been done????????

Dereck

Inclined to listen to reason. Suppose I'll load it up and make the trek, though I don't have that kind of money to throw at a bike I was led to believe was in good condition.

Anybody and everybody end up spending 3g's minimum when they get into these bike. You really really need to get to know this bike. Ask anyone here, it's worth it and you won't be sorry. They are relatively an "open concept" being everything is easy to get to.

It's easy to see your situation as a potential horror story, but it's not. Sure, you have some things to deal with, but if it were my fresh acquisition I would be doing the motor anyhow. For you, it is a matter of the decision being made for you to do the motor by happenstance.

Fresh guides and valves is a no brainer A bore job and new pistons.....piece of cake. New crank bearings, who wouldn't do that? The only real concern might be the crank journals, but even that is is oh so doable.

Now I am not saying you would be doing these things but you can and should be pulling the motor. removing the head and cylinders and even splitting the cases. The forum can and will guide you to what needs to be done and who can do it for you reasonably. If you are inclined at all mechanically then you can do these things and more. These motors, and most all other aspects of these bike, are truly straight forward.

Winter is upon us and now is the time to sort and plan. When you fire this up in the spring and realize how for your bike and you have come, you will take a deserving pride in knowing what you are riding is a piece of history that is truly yours.

Guy offered to come help fix or my money back. I countered with him paying for some of the rebuild maintenance. He seems to be set on repaying the money as opposed to letting it sit and us both be out, me more so than intended, money because of the unknown outcome. Not going to lie I've waited years to own one of these bikes and Id hate to let it go but more than that I'd hate to continuously sink money into a bike, or at least for a short while. Advice from this point is welcomed.

Take it to Big D, get an estimate for a rebuild and have him pay the lions share. If he balks, get a refund and find a good one.

If he offered your money back, TAKE IT. There are plenty of these bikes out there and you have a big problem right now. I'd keep looking, you know so much more now, but you need to read more still. Like someone said, these old bikes are not plug and play, you have to deal with them but they can be perfectly reliable, plus nothing looks better.

I'd say take the money and run. Just from the pictures I can see that the tops of the valves are badly dimpled. You would probably never be able to set the lash correctly. So at the very least the head needs to come off and have the valves replaced just from what we can see here. The guides are undoubtly shot from lack of oil, rocker and shafts are probably galled. Just the parts and labor to redo the head would be around a grand. And that's just the stuff we can see.
If after this you're still keen on a Norton (you really can't fault the bike for this problem, just shoddy repair) go to Big D and have Keith hook you up with a good one with your refund money.

DogT said:

If he offered your money back, TAKE IT.

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YAHTZEE!!!

Just noticed there's a parallel thread on this bike. It also has a clutch issue. Hope our new owner gets his $ back. If he does, we all need to keep a picture of this bike handy. I bet it will be back out on the market with new oil lines in a few days.

Think I'm going to return the bike to the owner for my money and registration fees. I'm a glutton for punishment but I don't have all the time I used to to work on this bike. If any of yall know of a 74 interstate 850 in the Dallas or Denver area let me know. Until then I'll just be picking my green envy back up off the shelf.

sturrubiarte said:

Think I'm going to return the bike to the owner for my money and registration fees. I'm a glutton for punishment but I don't have all the time I used to to work on this bike. If any of yall know of a 74 interstate 850 in the Dallas or Denver area let me know. Until then I'll just be picking my green envy back up off the shelf.

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You're doing the only sensible thing in these circumstance matey. Fair play to the vendor, he could have been a lot more awkward. But you will sink a fortune in time / money/ emotion / energy / and more money into this bike. That's fine if you intended it. Not so fine if you thought you'd bought a good 'un. There are plenty of good ones out there...