Jubilee front wheel spindle

Hello there,

That must be one of the last Jubilees made as I think normal production actually ceased in August 1965 but there was a last batch of 100 bikes made in early 1966 for one special customer.

There are at least three different versions of the Jubilee forks/front axles etc - eg 1959 version differs from the 1961 version and the later version is different still. In fact in old pictures of the last models it seems that the brake plate was actually fitted on the left (Japanese style) - normally it fits on the right.

Your spindle is presumably the knock through type and assuming that you already have a wheel complete with brake plate why not simply offer up the wheel into the forks and measure the spacers you require to centralise the wheel. The brake plate locates on a spigot on the fork leg and the spindle nut is a sleeve nut (if it is the same as the earlier versions) - 1961 nut and the 1959 nut are the same I think but the spindles and spacers are different. The spindle nut I think is available in the NOCshop.

Patrick

Hello Don,

Yes the forks and other bits came from the Francis Barnett and don't have the same reputation as the Roadholders on other Nortons. But at least these bits are still fairly cheap to find at autojumbles and spacers are easy enough to make.

Your best bet as a rule is to try to get a Spare Parts List as this often gives useful diagrams as well as part numbers. I have parts lists for 1959 Jubilee and 1961/2 Jubilee/Navigator - this gives you the opportunity to compare parts between different years etc.

The original De Luxe Jubilee really was a creature from the fifties with it's fancy two tone paint but by 1966 it was seriously outdated. Very few machines were actually made in 1965 and the last batch of Jubilees made in 1966 was only 50 machines (not 100 as I said before) and they were for Claude Rye - a London dealer. Really Norton was clearing out it's obsolete stock and I believe they were sold off at big discounts. Honda had arrived with their advanced new 250 model (and the Black Bomber) so the end had arrived for the lightweight Nortons. And the CB750 would arrive a year or two later.!

So maybe your bike is one of these rare final edition Jubilees?

Patrick

Your spindle is presumably the knock through type and assuming that you already have a wheel complete with brake plate why not simply offer up the wheel into the forks and measure the spacers you require to centralise the wheel.

Just wondering how accurate this measurement needs to be? Presumably the idea is to meet and maintain the forks in their natural condition whilst the wheel is central between them? In my case I lack fittings from the RHS of my jubilee ('61). This means in my case determining the distance from the outer face of the wheel bearing to the inner face of the fork. Presumably the spacer should accommodate the inner end of the sleeve nut in a recess if it protrudes through the fork, as the head of the sleeve nut limits outwards movement of the fork, but not inwards as its free to slide along the sleeve nut?? I think I will have to make something up but I'd like an idea of what it should look like if there was an original part? As an alternative, perhaps the sleeve nuts were different between 59 and 61-on bikes? They have the same part nos in the list but they look different and the later wheel lacks a spacer so this must imply that the sleeve nuts were longer?

Mike

Very few machines were actually made in 1965 and the last batch of Jubilees made in 1966 was only 50 machines (not 100 as I said before) and they were for Claude Rye - a London dealer.

Yes, when I started my Apprenticeship in 1966 running a 1949 BSA C11 a pal of mine had one of the last batch in black and 'plum' with a matching Avon full fairing. I was very jealous. John

For 'viewers' to this thread - there are 3 versions of front axle used on the Jubilee:

1) In 1959, the wheel was quick release, in that you did not need to pull out the spindle (axle) - instead, a sleeve nut was used both ends & once both were removed, the wheel dropped down through two slots at the fork bottoms. The Sleeve nuts are held firmly by the mudguard stays, so these need slackening first.

2) By 1960, it was quickly discovered that undoing both nuts (they HAD to be completely removed) was hard/impossible, as one would always spin. So a redesign gave us an axle that used just one of the above sleeve nuts. This means that either wheel suits either fork.

3) In 1963, a replacement fork is used, of a newer design. The bottoms are now square (the previous two had rounded fork bottons) & the mudguard stay is now used as a clamp, rather then as a cotter pin (earlier design). The spindle nut is now a conventional hex nut.

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frontwheel59-jpg

Here is the 1960/62 hub

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frontwheel61-jpg

Here is a lovely 1964 Jubilee - you might just be able to see the fork bottoms are different, and that a normal hex nut is used now

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jubilee-1964-pdf