Got it.
Followed this great tip, worked first try. From Capn's notes vol. 3
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This problem of installing Norton heads arises because Nortons have their pushrod tunnels permanently cast into the cylinder barrels rather than using the vast array of little tin tubes, rubber washers, etc., found leaking onto older engine designs (the names of which modesty prevents me from mentioning). The Norton design was a major improvement in oil-tightness, but it makes getting the head off and on with the engine in the frame very tricky indeed if you do it the way the book says, because you're supposed to lift all four pushrods as high as possible into the head and hold them there while you lift the head out of the frame, or you won't have enough clearance to get it out. Six hands are the practical minimum for this job, and most Brit-bikers have only two.
The answer is to use a pair of nylon tie wraps (the kind used on electrical harnesses, etc.) As soon as the head is lifted free from the gasket, put one tie wrap around each pair of pushrods, fastening it so the long end of the tie wrap poinst out away from the barrel. Snug them up tight enough so that it's a bit difficult to move them up and down on the pushrods.
Now, as you remove the head, push the tie wrap down all the way on each pair of pushrods, then put a finger from each hand under the tie wrap on the pushrods to hold it up (and its pair of pushrods) as you're lifting the head free of the engine. Holding each pair of pushrods this way leaves you eight fingers to lift the head out of the frame. it will be easy to keep the pushrods snug against the head and you'll clear the frame with no danger of bending a pushrod, and no extra hands needed.
After the head is off, keep the tie wraps on the pushrods (unless you need to service them, of course), so you can tell the left pair from the right pair by the direction that the end of the tie wrap is pointing. To reinstall the head, just hold the pushrods high up in the head with a finger on the tie wrap as you did before while lifting the head loosely onto the barrel. Once the head is past the frame and over the barrel, with the pushrods in their tunnels, you don't need the tie wraps anymore, so snip each one off while HOLDING the long end, to be SURE no nylon bit falls into the engine.
Note that the only purpose of this trick is to keep the pushrods out of harm's way during removal and installation of the head. During installation, you still have to follow the book and be sure the pushrods are properly located on their rocker-arms before tightening down the head bolts, or a pushrod could be bent.
If, like the writer above, you've already taken the head off by the traditional blood & chaos method, you can still put it back on with the tie-wrap method (First make sure the pushrods damaged during removal have been replaced and all skin lacerations have stopped oozing, which could cause rust). You simply have to put a tie wrap on each pair of pushrods, aiming the end of the tie wrap toward the outside of each pair so you'll be able to tell the left from right. (If you've mixed them up already, you'll survive, but it's better practice not to interchange pairs).
I invented this trick many years ago, and used it last October on my ring-job with no problem, even though I was out of practice. Easier head installation is probably the only good thing that can be said about separate pushrod tubes of the earlier engine designs -- this trick makes Norton head removal & installation almost as easy, without giving up the oil-tightness and durability of cast-in pushrod tunnels.
