74 Commando

Gregory, get your daddy to take you to a local branch meeting where there will be someone i'm sure that will show you how a motorbike works!

The first thing to do is to buy the factory manual. That will at least have a wiring diagram which will show how the electrics are supposed to work. I had electronic ignition on Commandos in the past, but I prefer the original points, condensers, coils and mechanical advance for ignition - it is very easy to set up and also easy to trouble shoot.

The choke is easy to fit, all parts being available.

None of us is born knowing anything...

Fuel tap on. Prod carb tickler(s) with smelly finger a few times until petrol can be felt - in theory not overflowing but never mind...

Air lever closed. You don't have one so you'll have to make do with flooding it with the tickler.

Small throttle open. Not too much. Prod pedal until it feels stiff at top dead centre. Push it gently past top. Let lever come back to the top. Good stiff push and you should be away. It'll never start first kick if anybody is watching you although it will do so every time you are on your own...allegedly.

Close air slide immediately. If you get one. Lots of riders remove the air slide so as to make their lives more difficult. No idea why but no doubt someone will explain.

Now wait for other opinions. Every bike is slighly different and you'll get used to the foibles of yours.

ps does it spark? if it runs well once it's going then there can't be a lot wrong.

And enjoy...

Hi Greg and welcome to the diverse world of Norton ownership. I would hope Alan Johnson will be along shortly to apologise for his crass comment. Anyway the pazon ignition is quite well thought of and to get the best out of it, the timing would probably benefit from checking with a strobe light. The old points are easy to set up but setting them by the book method in my experience results in a massive advanced spark. In my case that resulted in a cracked piston. Electronic ignition should be fit and forgetonce strobed.

With no choke I would tickle both carbs, turn the engine over a couple of times before switching the ign on and give it a good healthy kick bringing all your weight to bear and a closed throttle, be ready to crack the throttle open a bit when it fires.

I'm not a fan of kicking over on the center stand, there is a lot of leverage going on there.

I've never had choke slides in my Concentrics but I think you should seal the hole in the carb top where the cable used to go.

Previously greg_myall wrote:

I recently bought a 74 Commando and when I can get it started it runs great but what a struggle to start it, even thoughit has a Pazon sure fire ignition fitted. I had it courier delivered and have had to work out myself how to get it going, there is no choke and I think I am missing the very basics ofgetting it going.Any advice appreciated, i.e. tickle carbs, hold throttle fully open or not, kick in a certain position etc. my knees are caving in......

Also as there are no indicators fitted I am not sure if the lever on each side of the handlebar is for each indicator or one side for both and the other lever an on/off maybe. Cheers

Battery in good condition ? I think that most electronic systems need a good electrical supply to work properly.

It's always difficult to diagnose at a distance. Is it doing anything ? Popping, banging, almost catching ? An 850 Commando requires a fair of effort to overcome the inertia and if (as I see on your other thread), your previous experience has been with two-strokes then you're really in at the deep end now !

'Large' people seem to have an easier time starting 850s. The rest of us have to be pretty committed to spinning it over. I do start mine on the mainstand when cold (from alongside) as otherwise a lot of effort goes into compressing the suspension. If your sump has filled with oil from a drained oil tank then the oil drag will make it very difficult to spin fast enough to start. If you're not too long in the leg or extremely strong then starting it astride will require that at some point one foot is on the kickstart and the other is off the ground. If this is combined with a lack of confidence and a wide early Interstate tank then success is not guaranteed.

I removed the airslides on mine as they seemed to cause stiffness in the throttle action and in my opinion, to pull cleanly, a Commando needs to be set slightly rich on the pilot mixture anyway.

The Amal airslide system worked well on the old Type 76 carbs where it ran in guides in the brass jet block holder. However, by the time the cheaper Concentric came along, it ran directly in the slide which means that throttle action is compromised by a slide inside it, generally canted over by the spring compression....Well, that's how it seems to me anyway.

Mine's generally a first kick starter unless I'm loaded with luggage in a muddy field at which time the need to keep it upright conflicts with a good hard swing.

It is a scientific fact that the ease of starting a large English motorcycle is inversely proportional to the number of interested bystanders. You'll just have to learn to live with that !

Here's my two pennyworth as an owner of two 850 Commandos , a '73 Mk1A and a '76 Mk3 - the older having itsoriginal points ignition while the Mk3 has Boyer electronic. Standard Amal twin carbs on both , with all jets , slides , needle position,etc as per Norton spec in manual.

For starting ,both bikes respond to the same procedure - full choke , tickled carbs (hold down tickler on each carbtill fuel emerges) , aboutoneeighth toquarter throttle , one gentle andslow priming swing on kickstartreturning to rest on a compression stroke, then one or sometimes twohefty swings fires them both up almost every time. Takes a few minutes to warm up engine before choke can be fully closed - especially in winter.

Both bikes seem to run best with slightly rich pilot air setting (about one to one and a half turns out from closedfor the air screw).

Also definitely prefer the original points ignition set-up to electronic ignition. The Boyer system has worked troublefree (so far) but engine has differentcharacteristic , especiallywhen shutting down throttle ,andthen there's the ever present concern ofsudden electronic failure problems thatare hard to diagnose. Mechanical points and timing adjustment is easy once you've been through it a couple of times and is totally reliable once properly set up with only very occasional maintenance and tweaking required - my Mk1A isa one-kick starterevery time when pointsignition timing is set spot on (28 degrees btdc fully advanced).

Previously greg_myall wrote:

Also as there are no indicators fitted I am not sure if the lever on each side of the handlebar is for each indicator or one side for both and the other lever an on/off maybe. Cheers

The handlebar switches on your '74 bike , which I'm assuming is a Mk2A 850 ,should be the same asthe ones on my Mk1A ,ie , grey and blackcoloured Lucas units. On these the right handhandlebar switch does the indicators - up forleft and down forright - while the left handhandlebar switchis forthe dip / high beam.

Original Lucas switches are unobtainable (except in the odd auto jumble if you're lucky and those will likely be knackered anyway) but SPARX do apretty good pattern unit which looks almost identical to the original - I've fitted the SPARX indicator / engine cut-out switch cluster to my Mk1A without problem except for needing longer screws than thefoursuppliedto mount it onto the front brake master cyclinder.

Early Boyer ignitions needed a good voltage to start with the timing where it was supposed to be. Low voltage caused the Boyer to go fully advanced and kick back or trash the sprag on electric starters. Pazon claims this has been taken care of on their unit an should start with a lower voltage. I agree with others here that the mixture has to be slighly rich at idle to avoid an annoying glitch on pick up.