Dolls Head Manual

There is a free download on the wdnorton.nl website which has the instruction manual for the WD 16H. The dolls head gearbox section will be useful to you.

Good luck!!

Filling semifluid grease is nearly impossible when cold. I've learnt from other Vincent Comet owners that putting the grease bottle in water and heat it to some 90 Celsius/ 200 Fahrenheit is a good approach. Works well for me. About amount never heard anybody who knows. Sad to say, the WD16H is according to the Workshop Manual Norton 16H 1937-1945 uses 50.HD oil. This manual has (most) of the information you need.

I got this manual with a WD16H I bought. Don't know where to find one.

This link may be helpful: http://www.wdnorton.nl/Gearbox%20and%20Transmission.htm

Mike

I used Spheerol semifluid grease in the 1931 Sunbeam Model 10 I had recently and found I could use one of those agricultural syringes (available on ebay for a few pence) to get it in the gearbox.

Although not as well oil-sealed as the later gearboxes, the Doll's Head is not so different internally from the post-war and AMC boxes which most definitely use oil and I wouldn't contemplate anything else. The design seems to rely on the layshaft picking up oil and throwing it around the cluster.

I fill initially with a homemade cardboard funnel and keep topped up using a 'Wesco' oil can.

The only difference from the post WW2 'vertical' gearbox is the shape of the outer castings - that is merely a cosmetic upgrade of the 'doll's head' pre-WW2 box, and conceals the clutch lifter mechanism instead of leaving it exposed. The shell and gear cluster, positive stop mechanism, clutch lifter, kick start arrangement are just the same. I used engine oil in a 'vertical' box, and see no reason why a 'doll's head' box should not use the same.

FWIW, the gear cluster, and all the other parts are the same design as a 'horizontal' box - that just has a better location for the positive stop mechanism which eliminates the external link, for a much better gear shift. The low location of the shift lever pivot is an improvement too.

I make gearbox oil filling funnels out of plastic milk cartons, laundry liquid bottles and the like. The handle becomes the tube, the part below the oil receiver.

Paul

Previously richard_payne wrote:

Although not as well oil-sealed as the later gearboxes, the Doll's Head is not so different internally from the post-war and AMC boxes which most definitely use oil and I wouldn't contemplate anything else. The design seems to rely on the layshaft picking up oil and throwing it around the cluster.

I fill initially with a homemade cardboard funnel and keep topped up using a 'Wesco' oil can.

My experience is that my dollshead gearbox is not leaking worth mentioning with 50 oil. The Burman in the Vincent leaked much until filled up with Penrite semifluid grease. Now not leaking at all.

Mike

The 'doll's head' gearbox is the first version of the Norton gearbox, but it's actually a slight development of the Sturmey Archer proprietary gearbox, whose design rights were bought by Norton in 1932- and manufactured for them by Burman. Yes, Burman made ALL Norton gearboxes up to the AMC.

The Sturmey Archer 4 speed box is a derivative of the 1920s 3 speed Sturmey. Incidental fact - the '20s race 3 speed box had ratios 1:1, 1.333:1, 1.78:1. These are exactly the same internal ratio differences as all the classic Sturmey Archer 3 speed epcyclic hub gears for bicycles! (I have serviced hundreds of them).... Now the 4 speed racing box as used on racing Internationals and Manx is this classic ratio set, with an extra gear between top and the first reduction, making a ratio set 1:1, 1.1:1 , 1.333:1, 1.78:1

So how did bicycle ratio sets end up in motorcycles? Well, the first mechanical gearboxes in (English) motorcycles were epicyclic hub gears, as found for example on a 1913 Rover motorcycle owned by a friend. It's a more heavily constructed version of a bicycle hub gear, with a belt drive and clutch for takeoff. They broke - the box was quickly discovered to be in the wrong place, with too much gearing reduction ahead of it, so it had to cope with lots of torque. My friend is a toolmaker, and made a new internal mechanism from stronger steels. Later bikes had a gearbox in a more suitable location, between engine and rear wheel, with less gearing reduction to cope with.

You may ask why did Sturmey Archer stop making their gearbox, and sell the rights to its design, given that it was such a good box, considered good enough for a Brough Superior, among other marques? Sturmey Archer was owned by Raleigh, who for a while made motorcycles (they stopped in '32 or '33). When Raleigh motorcycle engines were sold to other marques, they were branded Sturmey Archer. When Raleigh decided to cease motorcycle manufacture, they decided to sell the gearbox design. Norton was their biggest customer, so they bought the rights, and had them made by Burman.

Paul

Previously john_carter wrote:

Thanks Richard and Paul

Really interesting to learn about this.. a great achievement for the initial core design to have lasted for so long. And good news for us with so much interoperability with later boxes. There are various schools of thought about oil versus semi fluid grease but I agree oil seems an easier option.. At least I feel informed enough now to get on with it.. Thanks again..

Excellent write up Paul. I've always thought the Norton boxes throughout their life superior to the Burman designed items but wasn't aware Burman actually manufactured them.

WRT the original query, there is a pdf version of a 1935 manual here:

www.motos-anglaises.com/manuels/norton/manuel_norton_1935_entretien-general_francais.pdf

which actually specifies grease for the gearbox.

Thanks

Another odd factoid. The Burman racing gearbox in early post War 7Rs is a magnesium casing which houses a Manx gear cluster. I once knew a chap who had a pair of these casings, empty. He sold them for very little, believing that no-one would be able to find or make a new cluster for them. He was not very pleased when he discovered that the man he sold a brand new NOS Manx gear cluster to had put it in one of his casings and onto a bike..... Ken McKintosh if you please.

I was a little displeased when I heard the story. If I had known that he had a spare Manx gear cluster, I would have tried to buy it off him!

My father had Nortons in the 40s and 50s, his first being a 1928 flat tank side valver, and the last a '49 International which came to him with a roadster doll's head gearbox He bought a new vertical box with Inter ratios and put it in. D11 23635 where are you now? He ran thick engine oil in the boxes

Paul