Norton maintenance in problems!!

Good to hear that Colin. My Pride and Joy is with Norton at the moment as they sort the rough idle issue. Karen has been good throughout and your experience certainly makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Colin:

For our info, what waqs the problem and what did he have to do to fix it?

Mike

Previously colin_wade wrote:

Hi Mike

The problem I have had has been the one âcloud on the horizonâ with this beautiful bike, as I absolutely love it!

On pulling away in first gear, it could jerk forward, and make an unpleasant metallic noise, with the chain, âtwanging like a bow stringâ. If you just fractionally let out the clutch, on low revs, you could pull away, and once moving, let the clutch out fully, without the noise. Conversely, with high revs, letting the clutch out fractionally, achieved the same result without the noise, but again until achieving circa 10 mph, you were moving very slowly away from zero. (not recommended on fast roundabouts). The gear changes were crisp and slick, in all gears (except first), with no clutch slip or noise. The problem was moving away from a stationery environment.

The noise; Sounded like possibly the chain slipping over the sprocket, the sprocket turning on the gearbox shaft, or a shaft not fully locked in the primary drive train, and the âteethâ, jumping out of their interface with one another. (not pleasant)

Having ridden bikes since I was 16 years old, and still riding a 1958 BSA 650cc Super Rocket, I have to say I had never heard anything like it, and neither had any of my friends. It had been returned to Norton for this fault, and nothing apparent had been found, except slight dimensional change on the gearbox shaft, so a new one was fitted. It did not âfix the problemâ.

After Mark rode the bike, he advised he knew what it was, as he had heard this effect before, when they had been carrying out clutch longevity trials, (apparently they wreck clutches to see how long they can last) and felt it was a âbuckled clutch plateâ.

He was spot on, and the bike is perfect now. When I got it back, and tried it out, I âshotâ up the street at an unprecedented rate, when letting the clutch out the same way as my BSA Super Rocket.

If it stays like this, I will be mega happy!!!

hi guys guess what my clutch does the same, Sean told me not to worry about it !!!

Terry

Hi Terry,

Glad your problem was sorted out quickly.

This year I had my 961 in for clutch and smoke problems - 4 months later I finally got it back losing all the summer riding days.

During that time Sean and Touche walked out leaving Karen to pick up the pieces.

I hope things are better now because Norton have/had major customer service issues ie their communication with me was extremely poor.

I went weeks without a single update on progress.

Finally Karen stepped up to the mark and started putting mein the loop.

I hope the new technician continues to be successful as I am dreading sending the bike back for its next service.

Happy days.

Previously terry_woods wrote:

hi guys guess what my clutch does the same, Sean told me not to worry about it !!!

Terry

If anyone knows a remedy to this problem of strange metallic noise from the clutch, I would be very interested to get more information. My bike's clutchdoes the same like the ones of Colin and Terry and I think it is getting worse with the mileage risingwhich reached by now 12'500 miles.

Thanks for any hints in advance

Raphael, Switzerland

Previously raphael_vonaesch wrote:

Previously terry_woods wrote:

hi guys guess what my clutch does the same, Sean told me not to worry about it !!!

Terry

If anyone knows a remedy to this problem of strange metallic noise from the clutch, I would be very interested to get more information. My bike's clutchdoes the same like the ones of Colin and Terry and I think it is getting worse with the mileage risingwhich reached by now 12'500 miles.

Thanks for any hints in advance

Raphael, SwitzerlandHi Raphael, if its the noise made when the clutch is let in other than the most gentle of release then I think the problem is the plates, if you feed in the clutch with slip its sorta ok but dump the clutch and its sounds like a speedway boot sliding on a steel plate, is that the noise ?.Terry

Previously terry_woods wrote:

Hi Raphael, if its the noise made when the clutch is let in other than the most gentle of release then I think the problem is the plates, if you feed in the clutch with slip its sorta ok but dump the clutch and its sounds like a speedway boot sliding on a steel plate, is that the noise ?.Terry

Hi Terry

The descritpion of the noise might fit to the one I recognize. But this sound is not always coming. Mostly the noise is appearing by releasing the clutch in first gear, but to my opinion it does not depend on the way of releasing the clutch. Sometimes its is coming sometimes not...

Do you know what is wrong with the plates and what could be done to solve the problem? Do you have had a repair for it? By whom?

Raphael

Hi Raphael

My NC 961 suffered with noisy clutch too. The noise was getting vorse and vorse by the mileage, and strongest was in neutral at idling speed. The mechanics by Egli Motorradtechnik AG mended the ckutch by modification invented by them for that purpose. But two new problems occured.

The first - the outher shell of the head lamp cracked and must be replaced. The original from Norton is not the remedy, I am afraid.

The second - one of the front brake discs has an excesive swash.

This bike is getting to be a nightmare.

The Royal Enfield Continental GT, I bought this year is completely other case. 5000 plus km on the clock an not a single problem.....