The Norton is back home again. This morning I went to go pick her up with my father-in-law. The weather was fairly good; as the forecast predicted rain all weekend long, we must have been in between two rain showers. Just when I thought to make it back home dry, it started to rain from the pont de Sevres, enough to become wet anyway. Oh well.
Norton Commando 850 back home
Of course, it didn’t go as smooth as planned; on the way back, just at the highway exit to take the direction of Nanterre Prefecture, I lost my father-in-law who was following me in our car out of sight. I stopped, waited, but nothing… After about 10 minutes of waiting I figured that he must have gone straight direction Paris rather than taking the sharp right turn direction Nanterre. I continued my way untill I could pull over in a safe spot to call my mother-in-law. Of course he didn’t have his mobile phone with him, so impossible to contact him to find out where he was. I continued my way, hoping that he would find his way back and also hoping the Norton wouldn’t break down, as all my tools were in the car.
Norton’s right exhaust locking nut fixed (inner thread)
Once back home, parked the Norton in the garage to take some pictures. I’m happy, it looks good, both exhaust locking nuts are fixed or rather, the cilinderhead’s inner thread is fixed that holds the locking nuts. When I picked up the Norton, Laurent told me that it is a good little bike; besides the two inner thread reparations they also replaced some other parts and an oil change.
Norton’s left exhaust locking nut fixed (inner thread)
One of the parts that got changed is the camshaft’s feeding oil tube. From what Laurent told me, the one that was in place was the bricolage and not original. If ever it would break or loosen, it would starve the camshaft from oil. The sparkplug cables got replaced as well, which is strange, because this are the cables that were delivered with the ignition coils. Oh well, I don’t really care, I suppose they know what they’re doing and if they fitted the right cable and as long as it works, I’m happy.
New (original ?) camshaft oil feed tube
Meanwhile I polished and cleaned the Norton a bit, waiting for my father-in-law. He came home about 1 hour later. I don’t know how he managed but he told me that he stopped and waited too. Somewhere. At least not along the same road. But when he wanted to continue his way, he couldn’t; he had pulled our car up the side curb and got stuck under the engine; the right front wheel spinned around in nothing, not having any grip. As he didn’t have a phone he couldn’t call anyone, but luckely for him, some people stopped to give a push. I wish they hadn’t, because now I have a nice dent in the hood on the front right side where they pushed the car … On top of that, it didn’t even do the trick. Someone else was smarter, turned the steeringwheel a couple of times, enough to place the right front tire on solid ground and the car came free on its own. He also explained that he was later because he had to pay toll when he came over a toll road, but.. The way he was supposed to go, there aren’t any toll roads! Oh well, he made it home, next time he will probably remember to take his mobile phone.
After 500km, the cilinderhead needs re-tightning and re-set the valves, but I’ll try to have it coïncidence with work on the clutch towards the end of winter. I don’t use the Norton all that much and as I don’t even have the right tools, I prefer that Machines & Moteurs re-tightens it.
