Hot Rod Norton 880 long-term project

[grandpaul]

From April 7th-

It's starting to look like a motorcyle now.

I fabricated some cheap, quick mounting straps for the guages & headlight, then mounted a standard Lucas headlight shell and a set of borrowed chrome guages (Yamaha cruiser, I think). Next, worked out some temporary fork stops to keep the forks from contacting the gas tank. Lastly, fabricated a brake caliper adapter to retrofit a Nissin 2-pot rear brake caliper to the Norton mounting bracket, and mounted up the rear wheel using a one-piece axle all the way through instead of the stup axle and main axle setup; this is definitely temporary.

I need to have a machinist weld up an extended stub axle and thread it, then weld an extension on the main axle and thread it, too. This is due to the box section swingarm approximately 1-1/4" wide on each side instead of 3/8" thick axle location flat on the OEM swingarm.

 

[grandpaul]

From April 8th-

Further along now. The brake discs arrived, so they got installed with some temporary spacers (still no bearings).

I cut down the meter mount bracket, lowered the headlight, and installed a bulb, ammeter, switch & 2 jewels. Definitely looks better. Also installed a set of better sportbike bars (I hate drag bars), so that's an improvement.

Installed the timing & tranny covers, they still need to be polished before the actual build-out. Meanwhile, I sent out 3 Norton disc to be skimmed & drilled, so the back brake will get a much nicer disk soon.

Had to resort to a Triumph ignition cover because the 2 Norton caps that I have are really scruffy. Not sure if the Nissin rear brake master cylinder is going to co-exist with the kickstarter, but that's for later sorting...

Other than the front wheel bearings possibly getting installed, that's it for now till after next week.

 

[grandpaul]

The non-running mock-up 880 was a big hit at the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation fundraiser bike show back in April, in Corpus Christi, Tx. I spent half the day telling the story over and over again, 1/4 of the day taking pix, and the other 1/4 eating chilidogs & checking out the other bikes.

From May 4th-

I got the 636 front fender, and it mounted perfectly with the new 19" front wheel using the lower mounting hole in the upper mounting lug that was designed for the smaller OEM Kaw wheel. Once I confirmed the mounting, I took it down to the painter to match the tank.

I also got the new 18" rear Excel rim laced by Buchanan's with tall Metzeler matching rubber, got the hollow mock-up engine pulled out, and I'm going back together "for real" this week.

Already got the new rear isolastic guts installed on the Dreer "big bearing" tranny cradle, replaced all the temporary hardware in the monoshock linkage with proper stuff, and I'm working on cutting down the front isolastic mount to accommodate the Mark III adjustable iso guts. I'm going to try and get the engine mounted by tomorrow, and have the hand-made wiring harness and rear axle sorted by the end of the week.

The new front wheel bearings will need precision shimming and custom-made spacers to complete fitting up the front wheel, but the brakes are bled and it rolls aropund 100% better than the mock-up arrangement.

The rest is punchlist stuff, all of the prototyping is done and fitted, just need to go front to back and assemble it all.

 

[grandpaul]

Now, here's today's progress-

All the dummy stuff pulled out, ready to go back in with the standard 850 stuff from my spare engine-

All new Mark III adjustable rear isolastics-

Started to mask off the cylinders and then decided "what the heck"...

 

[grandpaul]

Nice and clean, will use Left foot shift Mark III setup for now-

Front engine steady by Windy Eads (very simple & effective), and all new Mark III adjustable isolastics-

 

[grandpaul]

Oops - left out one "minor" detail - I'm installing my SPARE 850 ENGINE, NOT THE DREER 880. I need to do a lot of precision work on the crank, rods, bearings, cam followers and other stuff before I can even think about starting to build the 880; so I'm installing this "known good" 850 electric start, left-foot shift engine in place for now, so I can start riding and de-bugging the chassis and running gear as I slowly build the hot rod 880 engine.

I hope to have the bike running in time to take it to the BMOA rallye in New Ulm, Texas on May 14th-17th. BMOA Rallye Link

 

[Dschief]

All I can say is ""! The bike is looking great, and your details are amazing! Thanks for the update Paul.
It makes me feel bad about taking so long with my topend rebuild on my T140. Not enough hours in a day, and not enough dry weather here.

 

[dazco]

That is one gorgeous norton ! I've seen a few really nice ones lately, but that has most of them beat Of course they had norton frames too. But this one looks sorta like one of those dreer numbers that never made it to market. very nice.

 

[Dschief]

[quote author=dazco link=topic=990.msg30625#msg30625 date=1241567098]
That is one gorgeous norton ! I've seen a few really nice ones lately, but that has most of them beat Of course they had norton frames too. But this one looks sorta like one of those dreer numbers that never made it to market. very nice.
[/quote]
Um, I believe it is one of those Dreer bikes.

 

[CarlS]

That is looking mighty fine!! Outstanding!!!!!

 

[grandpaul]

"Yes" and "No", regarding the question 'Is it a Dreer bike?'

Yes, Kenny sold me the monoshock swingarm, special tranny cradle, exhaust headers, bodywork, cases, head, cylinders, pistons, carbs, carbon fiber primary case, starter, pushrods, front hub, and a few other bits.

No, he didn't BUILD any of it; although he DESIGNED almost all of it. He had all of these parts built in quantity by several specialists, (besides several variations of oil-bearing frames and a few other major components), then he built 880s with all the stuff he had designed.

What I DON'T have, and what I'd LOVE to have, is one of the very few prototype roller cam 952 engines!

 

[DaveM]

Grand work you have done here Paul :y115: It really looks stunning :y18:

 

[grandpaul]

"Half a dozen of one, Six of the other"

...so goes the old saying.

Started installing the inner primary from the 850 and realized there was no hole in the VR880 cradle for the Mark III shifter crossover shaft.

Plan "B". Installed the Spyke starter and then tried to fit up the carbon fibre inner primary and found that the top alternator stator bracket stud was too large in diameter for the CF primary dowel hole; drilled it out and proceeded to fit it up.

Oh, crud. The belt drive clutch basket hasn't been fitted up with the e-start ring gear yet. Never mind, on with Plan "C"; I can kickstart just fine. Removed the starter.

Tension of the belt wanted to keep pulling the drive pulley off the taper, so I fitted up the alternator rotor. Well, isn't that special, Norton decided to cast in an "oh no you don't" lip that prohibits you from installing the Mark III alternator stator frame with the rotor already in place! A pair of vice grips made quick work of that lip, dressed the edges and installed it. I'll need to carefully trim up 4 spacers for the alternator frame to stand it off the appropriate distance from the crankcase in the absence of the OEM inner case half.

It's a bit of a fiddle to get the two alignment dowels meshed, and then start the center fixing nut on the CF primary, but it's done.

Installed the Barnett friction plates with a final extra scrolled bronze plate to bring the stack up to optimum height, and popped on the diphragm and retainer clip. Couldn't seem to locate the clutch rod adjuster, so that'll wait 'till tomorrow morning. Installed the 32mm intakes for the stock 932s. All in all, good progress today.

 

[CarlS]

Paul, I admire your talent!!

 

[Rocky]

Talent indeed :y115: :y115:

 

[The Seeker]

W-H-O-A...that's really sweet!

 

[grandpaul]

Okay, time for Plan "D" !!!

The drive pulley that I have is designed for a pre- Mark III and doesn't fit far enough onto the crankshaft, so the belt drive and carbon fiber primary case are out of the picture (for now).

So, I drilled a hole in the tranny cradle for a Mark III inner primary chaincase steady (distance stud), replaced the clutch inner hub onto the Mark III clutch basket, and I'm looking high and low for the bloody distance piece!

I'm going to plug the shifter cross-shaft holes in the primary case (for now), and do the right-foot shift conversion for sure. The fact that I'm going to Left-foot brake with the necessity of a disc brake master cylinder actuator, means I need to hurry up and get a set of rearset footpegs in here and fabricate the linkage.

In order to make the rear wheel work with the new swingarm, I'm going to have to machine off the extraneous material from the Mark III sprocket dummy shaft and fashion a 9/16" one-piece rear axle. Fun, fun, fun.

Then comes the carbs! (Plan "E" ?) The FCR 33mm intakes have a proprietary spacing for the mounting at the head to co-exist with the Baisley 880 head, so I either need to find some rubber manifold adapters from 32/33mm spigot to horizontal orientation / appropriate spacing for OEM Mark III 32mm inlet manifolds, OR, I need to hurry up and build a set of Amal 932s from parts on the shelf (shouldn't be too hard to do).

If anyone can help with any of the above, I'd sure appreciate it...

 

[CarlS]

You are WAY above my league.

 

[Rocky]

Mine too

 

[grandpaul]

"my league" is one or two steps above shade tree mechanic.

Kenny Dreer and Matt Rambow (CNW) are several levels up.

Dreer bike-

CNW bike-

The late John Britten was a few notches above them. He designed and sand-cast his own engine components and hand-built a world-class racing superbike that I believe will always be my all-time favorite bike. All done in his garage.

Some of the suspension concepts, and the engine design are still unrivaled, and amazing to behold.