Rotary Owners' Club

I have received a text message today stating :- Update, due to unforeseen circumstances, the service will now take place at the slightly later time of 4.15pm. Tuesday 11th February at 4.15pm - same location. Regards, John Williams.

Mick,

It could be that your frame drain has suddenly sucked a load of oil out of the bottom of the frame, after being blocked?

John

Trevair,

Bit late this, but the front wheel needs to come out otherwise you won't be able to tighten up the 2 fixing bolts and nuts.

Trevair,

Looking at the top yoke, are the tube nuts roughly level with the top face of the yoke?

I suppose after a lot of miles there could be wear on the c/stand pivots. Or, the stand could have bent legs. They have been known to bend!

John.

Sorry for delay in replying.

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the "bare" unpainted engine, but believe me, it'll look a lot better
with the paint removed.
With the modern soda blasting process, even better still.....

Hello John,

Many thanks for posting the info re Hydraulic clutch operation. I will pass this on to my brother.

Regards,
John.

Ageing Rotarian, I had my ( Air- Cooled) engine castings stripped of powder coating when I had the engine in pieces 20+ years ago. To achieve this, I had the castings chemically stripped, then shot blasted. Though today I would have used soda blasting instead of shot blasting. The motor definitely r...

Hello there. As far as I can remember, the very early air - cooled prototypes had carb inlet pipes with 2 vacuum stubs on the RH side and 1 on the LH. The RH stubs were for scavenging oil from the main bearings, which was discontinued on later bikes. The LH carb pipe stub is the vacuum for the frame...

Yes, definitely in a museum in Germany. Might be the same museum that the green F1 engined Commander went to.

I was lucky enough to ride that bike (I wonder where the "Aurora" name came from?) a few times, which inspired me to beg/buy mine.

Hello Geoff, I can't remember whether the steering lock details were recorded in the build register book or on the bike job cards. Tho' I seem to remember they were in/on one of them. Academic now of course. I seem to recall we had to remove at least one lock. I think (it's a long time ago) we remov...

My money is on a stuck choke. Unless he rides everywhere at 140 mph.

Could be sticking/ worn float needles. Historically, the F1's were always more thirsty than the Sport's.

Certainly, the bike would benefit from a carb strip...…..

You could try a front disc. I've had a standard front disc on for thousands of miles, without any problems. As long as you check the brake pad thickness regularly. My bike doesn't have rear panniers. I've just checked my rear disc, to find that I have a LEFT front disc fitted. Must have been the onl...

Has anybody tried, or thought of trying, these Continental radial tyres on their Classic/Interpol/Commander bikes? Continental offer one front in 18" size - 90/90 R18, and two rear 18"- 110/90 R18 & 120/90 R`18. I haven't checked availability yet, but thought I'd sound things out. Any ...

Morning Richard,
Mine's exactly the same, except that there hole you have in your knurled sleeve is missing on the one I have. This makes it a bit
of a ball ache winding on the tight link side plates with mole grips.

Graham sourced mine 10 years or so ago, so I would think they're still available.

Mark, It might just be bad luck on your part, but I've used quite a few of the RGM Renold rivet links over the last few years, without trouble. In fact I've still a few left, and have just checked to see whether they are hardened at all. The ones I have are "soft", and can be filed easily....

Looking at the parts lists, the Commander and Classic have different part numbers. These fast idle rod assemblies were made up in batches, but I can't remember whether the individual components are of different lengths. The assemblies were "set" to length by loctititing the threaded short ...

As far as Rotor bearings go, the only info I have is that they were originally made by Torrington.

One is 26-569B - T27C,- size -M9 - M11 Norton no 55-0167 (small needle size bearing)

Other is 26-569B - size -M1 - M3 - Norton no 55-0168 (large needle size bearing).

Best of luck finding some.

John.

Harry, You have been indeed left a rare and desirable bike by your father, and if I may say so, to do the best by him, find out as much information as you can, before doing anything. A person I suggest you contact is Graham Wilshaw of Startright motorcycles, Leeds on 01132 453 643. You could also tr...

Hello Siran, How much oil is it burning? Enough to fill the road behind, or just a little bit? I think a much longer ride is needed, but you could check to see if the oil pump cable has become dislodged from its ferrule. The bike will smoke though after a long lay up. Some Italian tuning might be in...

Tony, I presume you mean the 2 brass adaptors, one on the top of each housing?
If so, they are just screwed in place, with a normal right hand thread, 12 or 13mm AF as I remember.

When you say plate, do you mean the steel one on the RH side, and plastic on the other side? If so remove.

Fuel pump working ok?

Terry,
Good idea to change them.
Let us know where you source some from, I could do with a few.
John.

I'm not sure whether Richard Negus does it now, but when he was at Rugeley, he redesigned the Commander water pump
to allow the Oldham coupling to be greased via a grease nipple.

Is your bike still fitted with the Boyer ignition system? If so I think your problem is more to do with Boyer ignition tickover "hang-up" than anything else. Norton had so much trouble with selecting a suitable retard v advance setup, and I don't think ever really got the Boyer to work rel...

When you rebuilt the carbs, did you change the choke O rings?

The only thing I can think of is that you might have a carb flooding problem. Although the F1 and F1 Sport share the same fuel pump, as far as I can remember, the Sport has no way of controlling pump pressure. The F1 has the fuel tank weir. To see if this is the case, remove the tank and carb dashpo...

The rear footrests were, (as far as I can recall), designed at Shenstone. Some of the components were made in house
and others out sourced.
They were then assembled in house.

Along the lines of what Florida Mike said, ie Lucas, the Jag might have had the same starter relay?
Though that'd be common to the other bikes.

The only thing I can think of is the fuel pump valve? A tecalamit (from memory) item.
Other than that, the F1 (Sport though), has SU carbs. Same as the Jag?

Hello Peter, When you come to replace the bearing, you will notice that the axial bearing is held by a circlip. You'll see that the bearing is "loose" radially. It is designed (my understanding anyway) to only hold the shaft axially. Any "end float" would be tiny anyway, unless t...