Sunday 27 January 2013

Norton Model 18 Restoration

The model 19 project has now become a model 18 ,mainly because of two factors, firstly it seems to be very difficult to flush out parts for these 596 cc motors and secondly I have found out that the motor will be too tall [ thanks Marcus ] for the WD open diamond frame, as a matter of fact it may well be a tight fit with the 490 cc motor .I know of a civilian open diamond frame with a 500 T motor fitted to it ,but there are differences between the two frames . So I will now refer to this restoration as a model 18 ,I posted a few pics when the frame and forks were in primer so as you can see I have moved forward a bit.

I was convinced to try using a two pac paint on the frame and forks as I am told it has a better resistance to fuel spillage ,I suppose I'll find out later ,in the past I have used enamel bought by the litre at the paint shop, pressure pac enamel , high temp pressure pac and acrylic so I have a bit of a mix certainly don't use the enamel pressure pacs they wash off with petrol .




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The wide  girder forks are designed to take the QD hubs of which I cannot find anywhere so I decided to fit a later model hub to the front end .This required three bits of engineering firstly make an axle out of 304 stainless with spacers nuts and washers to bring the wheel centre in the forks .Secondly I repeated the treatment of the Domi and replaced the RH wheel bearing with a sealed bearing and then removed the seal from the hub side only  then I shortened the bearing spacer by about 4 mm , this allows the double row ball to slide in enough to fit a garter seal to the LHS of the hub, the seal  was 40 x 25x 7 mm so now the brake plate spacer has moved in and the plate is scraping so I then turned up a new spacer with the 4 mm added to its length and created a polished 25 mm diameter for the seal to contact  , I now expect that the grease will stay in the hub and not on the brake shoes .Lastly the brake torque bracket had to be fabricated and fitted to the back plate , the back plate was a roadholder type with one of the pivots extended to engage a slot in the fork leg ,so I drilled out one and unbolted the other , turned up two new pivots with rivet ends and riveted the torque bracket on as per original .

The tank repairs are under way , my nephew did the welding as " a mans got to know his limitations ".















The oil tank mounts , once again not the correct tank but it looks great and can be made to fit ,this tank is off a later model that has been fitted with a lay down gearbox , I ground the welds and removed the original bracket and made a new setup to get the clearances right from the frame . This tank has a rounded front , the correct item is rather squared off







The forks , these are Indian made which I bought off e bay for about half what the Indians want for them .I think the original buyer was probably disappointed with the quality and was able to find something better .I started by stripping them down and working with die grinder, files and emery tape and tidying up all the castings then body filler and spot putty .I managed to get steering damper friction discs from BMH trading [ see my favourites list ] and made new serrated washers and pins for the check springs out of stainless , still looking for 18 mm hex to replace the rest of the nuts .The work continues , if I hit a problem in one area I start on another bit , next is to get a spoke set and have a go at lacing the front wheel. my hold up items are a QD hud for the rear , a rear stand and rear chain guard and enough bits to make a clockwise maggy .
More later , next post    Ballarat Swap Meeting