British wiring

As the buildup continues, it's time to reinstall my wiring harness. That posed a problem, though, because the harness needed some repairs before going back in. I'm using a stock harness (actually it's a reproduction installed by the previous owner) and while the harness itself was in good shape, there were a large number of snap connectors that were broken and corroded. I also needed new rubber grommets for the frame and some new wire to repair some broken leads (alternator and brake switch wiring). British wire, it turns out, is sized differently than American wire - instead of the AWG sizes we use, they rate it by the number of strands. The Norton harness uses 14-strand wire, with each strand being 0.3mm in diameter. Can't find that at the local Radio Shack!

Of course I had no luck trying to find suitable replacements locally. Even the usual brit bike suppliers don't have a lot of the parts I needed. So I was really happy to find British Wiring, a family-run business in Olympia Fields, IL. They had everything I needed, and all at very good prices too. I emailed in my parts list, called in my credit card info, and two days later I had my parts! Truly excellent service.

Now I can move forward with the wiring. I'm happy!

Roller!

It's a roller! The Norton is starting to look like a motorcycle again instead of a pile of parts.

We had bad weather this weekend so I stayed in and worked on the chassis. And I got the bike standing on its own two wheels! The gearbox is in, the new Hagon shocks are fitted, the new sidestand is installed, and the swingarm's needle bearing conversion is done. No more oily mess for me!

Just for fun I slipped on the seat and my Fireflake Royal Blue tank. I sat on the bike for the first time in months. What a nice feeling!

It hasn't been easy though. I've been running into fitment problems every step of the way. None of the new parts I buy ever seem to fit. They invariably require rework. Sometimes I can do it myself, other times machine shop services are required. The buildup is taking longer than I expected because every time I hit one of these problems I have to stop, figure out what's wrong, develop a plan for dealing with the problem, and then execute the plan.

One such issue was the new vernier isolastic kits I installed. The front one went right in, but when I tried to install the rear I found it did not fit into the frame. It was too wide. At first I thought it was another poorly-designed pattern part but investigation revealed the iso unit was not at fault. It was my frame. The distance between the mounting plates is supposed to be 8.750 inches, plus or minus .010. Mine was "minus" by considerably more than that. It took a while to figure out what to do about it. In the end, I used some threaded rod and nuts to spread the frame slightly (a couple of millimeters) so I could install the cradle.

Another little surprise came when I installed my new 520 x-ring chain conversion. The new brake drum did not mate up properly with my old brake plate. When assembled, the wheel wouldn't rotate! The problem turned out to be rivets on the brake drum that interfered with some bolts on the brake plate. It seems the rivets were more "proud", or projected out further, then the ones on the old drum. Shimming and grinding was required to make the parts work together. I still need one more shim to finish the job, so when the parts come in I'll have to take the wheel off and finish the job.

There's still a few more of these issues to resolve, but the chassis is nearly done. Soon I'll be ready to start reassembling the engine.