I'm looking for information regarding early 1947 specifications for the 500 singles. I have one of the surviving B3T Trials 500s and am in the process of returning the bike to what I hope would have been the original spec.
The oil tank I have looks like a later one and my gear lever has the droop at the toe end whereas the brochure from 1947 shows a straight gear lever without the droop. The ES2 adverts from 1947 shows a straight lever, too.
I've seen mention on these forums that the spec for 1947 mentions that the fork sliders were steel for that year with a small chromed lip. Does anyone know if that was correct and if so, does anyone know of any for sale?
I'll also be replacing the aluminium mudguards and Borrani aluminium rims. The brochure says that the rims were all black for the 1947 Trials: does anyone know if that means no chrome at all? it sounds like it to me. I wonder if the spokes were black, too.
The carb has been swapped for a Concentric but in order to make that fit, the right half of the rear petrol tank platform has been cut off. I'll be trying source one of those, too.
The bike has a steering damper knob which does not look like the ones I'm familiar with: does anyone know if it's genuine Norton for that period?
The parts manuals I have for 1946 and 1947 don't have any exploded diagrams: do such things exist for those years?
I'll attach a couple of photos showing the brochure image, advert, and the bike as it is now.
Any advice will of course be well received, thank you.
Gearbox Casing M46
- Log in to post comments
Apparently M46 denotes a…
Apparently M46 denotes a December 1946 build and H46 denotes August 1946. The letters a through M denote the month, with I not being used to avoid confusion with a number 1. It looks like mine was swapped out for a slightly earlier build at some stage in its life.
G5 is the Burman annotation for gearboxes fitted to the Big 4, 16H, ES2, and Model 18, which the B3T was based on.
- Log in to post comments
1947 Gear Lever
I've just realised that the bike had what was probably its original straight gear lever when it was sold in 2014. Photo attached. If anyone has one of those for the upright gearbox please get in touch. Thank you.
- Log in to post comments
Nobody has come forward with…
Nobody has come forward with ideas. A couple of observations about the lever
Prewar up to 1937 had straight gear lever. The hooked down arrived part way into the war - it allows the pedal to be lower down before the main section of the lever hits the footrest. I think 1938 had the hooked lever, but WD bikes were essentially to 1937 pattern so they had straight levers to begin the War.
Post war brochures all show straight levers again. Perhaps Norton decided that Army boots weren't commonly worn any more?
Your PO changed straight for hooked. I find the hooked lever more comfortable on my 16H. Perhaps that's why he changed. But RGM show a variety of levers - different lengths and offsets - but all appear to be hooked down.
Kick start splines are all the same. But AMC boxes have smaller gear lever splines. Don't know about laydown - but anyway you need to take care buying one without checking spline size.
- Log in to post comments
Thank you David. Useful…
Thank you David. Useful information to know. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
- Log in to post comments
A catalogue of errors.
Hi Ian,
The illustrations in the Norton catalogues are notoriously inaccurate as the artwork often preceded the actual production of any year on year changes. The portrayal of the forks dates back to the never released 1940 catalogue and this was used in mid 1946 when the 1947 catalogue was compiled. I was at the Brooklands bike day Sunday talking to a couple of Norton friends, both older than me, and none of us could recall the front forks having steel sliders. It is possible there may have been prototypes made in steel, but we have never heard of production machines using them.
As David says, the gear lever on the road going machines was changed for the 1938 season, but the B3T and the 500T had lower footrests so could use the straight lever with-out problems. Your steering damper knob is correct and this was subsequently used on the 500T and the 1950 Gardengate Manx for that year only. Your top yoke has had the 2 side bosses cut off. These take a 2 piece handlebar clamp on each side with a single bolt as used on the road models. Your top yoke has some bar raisers bolted to the stanchion top nuts. Most parts should be fairly easy to source.
- Log in to post comments
Thank you Richard. Very…
Thank you Richard. Very interesting and much appreciated.
I've managed to source a top yoke, so just the clamps and gear lever required now.
The next decision will be do I source a magdyno and lighting equipment/horn or leave the magneto on its own. It looks like they all left the factory with a magdyno and lights: it was just the speedo which appeared as an option from what I can tell.
- Log in to post comments
Something else I'd like to be able to source is an upright gearbox/shell stamped M46. Mine is now a G5H46 box but apparently it left the factory with a box marked M46. Any information regarding the difference in those boxes would be great, thank you.
I've uploaded a photo showing the cutdown petrol tank platform bracket, too. Worst case I'll have to get one fabricated: at least the one I have would be suitable as a pattern.