What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Just finished up installing andover vernier front and rear pulled the swingarm replaced bushes and shaft, RGM I think, and made up the split clamps , changed to a 20 tooth sprocket, did gearbox seal and clutch pushrod seal , replaced the brake hub wheel bearing and fitted new short axel , other wheel hub bearings new , new girling brake shoes , still not that good ! , will bed in , has been centralized . I set the isolastic at 2 notches figuring it would lose some clearance with main bolt tightened , rides a lot smoother than before I can just see the motor move a bit now , more testing this week , i will be doing the front stanchions and putting stainless spokes in at some stage but need to keep one bike going .Cheers
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
Clutch had started to drag a bit - more like a lot - ran the cable adjuster at the lever till there was no play - still dragging . Check lever at gearbox - slight play so good - checked adjuster/ nut at clutch - all good there so off with the outer primary cover and off with the diaphragm and out with the plates . As soon as I had the diaphragm out I knew what the trouble was. Oil cementing the works together. After my accident a year ago the bike was on it’s right side on top of me running in third gear . When I went through it I didn’t open the primary because I had no slippage in the clutch when kicking over so I thought that meant no oil had run up on the clutch. WRONG ! Enough had run up into the clutch and while it took nearly a year ( no riding in winter ) the oil that did get there had turned much more viscous over time , hence the problem. One friction plate and one plain plate had bonded together to the point they had to be gently pried apart .
All washed in gasoline , back together and working beautifully.
Live and learn .
 
I had the same thing happen to me with my Combat I've been working on for a couple years now. Went in to check the clutch pack and it all came out in one piece stuck together like glue. After sitting for a while they separated, but I learned about how the oil can really muck things up in there. I put a pushrod seal and a new clutch pack just for good measure since the bike is new to me.
In my case, live and maybe learn something...:)
 
Shelby-Right said:
Just finished up installing andover vernier front and rear pulled the swingarm replaced bushes and shaft, RGM I think, and made up the split clamps , changed to a 20 tooth sprocket, did gearbox seal and clutch pushrod seal , replaced the brake hub wheel bearing and fitted new short axel , other wheel hub bearings new , new girling brake shoes , still not that good ! , will bed in , has been centralized . I set the isolastic at 2 notches figuring it would lose some clearance with main bolt tightened , rides a lot smoother than before I can just see the motor move a bit now , more testing this week , i will be doing the front stanchions and putting stainless spokes in at some stage but need to keep one bike going .Cheers
Click to expand...
RGM MZ Gold shoes.

What/why did you change to a 20 from?
 
gortnipper said:
RGM MZ Gold shoes.

What/why did you change to a 20 from?
Click to expand...
It had a 19T/42 , it just felt like I was buzzing the motor just to do the speed limit 100kph , for how I ride I think it will suit, just a cruiser . I'll have look at those shoes , I thought those girlings looked like a good material , I had some shoes re done at Brake and trans years ago and they were awesome, looked the same , not ? I might clock the drum to the hole see if its on center , I'm sure it should feel more solid , I was shocked when I went to the shed , it's on the center stand and it only had I few drips from the kick start shaft , doing that soon , normally the primary side leaked , must have done something right :-) .
 
yeah, that sounds about right. I am mostly in 3rd not 4th on open roads not motorway.

Only on motorway splitting on way to work,
 
Yesterday I removed the front wheel from my 73' 850 to replace all hub parts - I figured 49 years was a long enough life span. Man oh Man those bearing did not want to come out. A couple hours of trying and I was about to give up for the day when I read a thread about using hot water... and it worked. I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning it up so I can button it all back together today. Now I'm fretting over grease. I have sealed bearing so all I see applying (light) grease to is the axel... yes? Maybe the inside of the spacer?

A couple weeks back I shipped my oil tank to Colorado Norton Works because one of the supports arms broke. Matt will fix it and add a few modifications to prevent it from happening again.... plus permanently seal the chain oiler. I guess I could have bought a new tank for close to what I'm paying for shipping, time and materials... but I'm trying to keep the bike OG as possible

Lastly, I did a poor job of installing my three phase alternator last year (consistent rotor / stator spacing) and fried it. Matt (at CNW) is sending a new stator and rotor and this time I'll be much more patient.

I should be back to riding in a couple weeks - just as the weather in San Diego turns bike-awesome.
later dudes
Chris
 
Chris Larkin said:
Yesterday I removed the front wheel from my 73' 850 to replace all hub parts - I figured 49 years was a long enough life span. Man oh Man those bearing did not want to come out. A couple hours of trying and I was about to give up for the day when I read a thread about using hot water... and it worked. I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning it up so I can button it all back together today. Now I'm fretting over grease. I have sealed bearing so all I see applying (light) grease to is the axel... yes? Maybe the inside of the spacer?

A couple weeks back I shipped my oil tank to Colorado Norton Works because one of the supports arms broke. Matt will fix it and add a few modifications to prevent it from happening again.... plus permanently seal the chain oiler. I guess I could have bought a new tank for close to what I'm paying for shipping, time and materials... but I'm trying to keep the bike OG as possible

Lastly, I did a poor job of installing my three phase alternator last year (consistent rotor / stator spacing) and fried it. Matt (at CNW) is sending a new stator and rotor and this time I'll be much more patient.

I should be back to riding in a couple weeks - just as the weather in San Diego turns bike-awesome.
later dudes
Chris
Click to expand...
Chris I be pulling the seals out of the bearings and give them a good clean then put new wheel bearing grease in them before putting the seals back in, the seals are easy to remove and put back in, grease in sealed bearings do go hard from use.
 
Chris Larkin said:
A couple hours of trying and I was about to give up for the day when I read a thread about using hot water... and it worked. I
Click to expand...

You could have saved yourself some time by reading section H7.3, of the factory manual first where it says that.
Chris Larkin said:
Now I'm fretting over grease. I have sealed bearing so all I see applying (light) grease to is the axel... yes? Maybe the inside of the spacer?
Click to expand...

Yes, grease the hub spacer and axle etc.
 
ashman said:
Chris I be pulling the seals out of the bearings and give them a good clean then put new wheel bearing grease in them before putting the seals back in, the seals are easy to remove and put back in, grease in sealed bearings do go hard from use.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. These are new bearings... would you still suggest I remove the seals, clean, grease then replace the seal before installation? Also, I plan to use generic white lithium grease for the axel. Any suggestions there too... please.
 
L.A.B. said:
You could have saved yourself some time by reading section H7.3, of the factory manual first where it says that.


Yes, grease the hub spacer and axle etc.
Click to expand...

Yup, probably should have read it first. I try to plan ahead, yet most often I wake up and say "I'm going to ------- today"
Thank you for the " Yes, grease the hub spacer and axle etc." confirmation. I plan to use white lithium grease for this.
 
Yes, there's no need to pack new sealed bearings and you should in any case avoid overpacking any bearing as more grease isn't necessarily better.

www.machinerylubrication.com

The Dangers of Overgreasing

When it comes to regreasing bearings, more is not always the better option and actually can be a costly mistake. Instead, greasing should be set on a frequency with proper calculations used to...
www.machinerylubrication.com www.machinerylubrication.com
 
L.A.B. said:
Yes, there's no need to pack new sealed bearings and you should in any case avoid overpacking any bearing as more grease isn't necessarily better.

www.machinerylubrication.com

The Dangers of Overgreasing

When it comes to regreasing bearings, more is not always the better option and actually can be a costly mistake. Instead, greasing should be set on a frequency with proper calculations used to...
www.machinerylubrication.com www.machinerylubrication.com
Click to expand...
I kinda feel the same. I will leave as is and add replacing them to my maintenance plans.

Thank you
 
Chris Larkin said:
Yesterday I removed the front wheel from my 73' 850 to replace all hub parts - I figured 49 years was a long enough life span. Man oh Man those bearing did not want to come out. A couple hours of trying and I was about to give up for the day when I read a thread about using hot water... and it worked. I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning it up so I can button it all back together today. Now I'm fretting over grease. I have sealed bearing so all I see applying (light) grease to is the axel... yes? Maybe the inside of the spacer?

A couple weeks back I shipped my oil tank to Colorado Norton Works because one of the supports arms broke. Matt will fix it and add a few modifications to prevent it from happening again.... plus permanently seal the chain oiler. I guess I could have bought a new tank for close to what I'm paying for shipping, time and materials... but I'm trying to keep the bike OG as possible

Lastly, I did a poor job of installing my three phase alternator last year (consistent rotor / stator spacing) and fried it. Matt (at CNW) is sending a new stator and rotor and this time I'll be much more patient.

I should be back to riding in a couple weeks - just as the weather in San Diego turns bike-awesome.
later dudes
Chris
Click to expand...
Chris,
Your sending the tank to Matt was a smart move.If you went ahead and bought a new one the arm might break again and now you don’t have to deal with the chain oiler plus his rubber mounts work great and it comes back powder coated.
Mike
 
YING said:
Chris,
Your sending the tank to Matt was a smart move.If you went ahead and bought a new one the arm might break again and now you don’t have to deal with the chain oiler plus his rubber mounts work great and it comes back powder coated.
Mike
Click to expand...
And boiled clean inside and out. You won’t be sorry.
 

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