My #1 Norton story

[point]

My first bike was a 750 Norton Atlas. I bought it second hand and as with all good Nortons, I was always repairing it. After about a year, it developed an intermitent miss. Sometimes all the time. Sometimes only at certain rpms. I tried everything. Points (dual point system), plugs, wires, carb tuning and so on forever.
I finally took it in to a Norton dealer (yes, they used to have them) and after a few hundred bucks they said it was all good.
I picked it up and got about three blocks and it started missing. Back to the dealer. They charged me for more parts and called me after a week and said all okay.
Picked it up and it ran great. Next day, you guessed it. Same old missfire. I then took it to a custom chop shop. These guys should know. They rebuilt the heads and I forget what else. Hundreds of dollars in 1970s money.
I'm going broke.
Did it resolve? nope. Lots of power when it ran but same old miss.
Fast forward next year. I was moving out of the country so sold the bike. The guy I sold it to wanted a few maintainence tips so I gave him a tour of the bike. I pulled the distributer cover off and showed him the system. He took hold of the distributer shaft and gave it a jiggle.
"Should it have this much play?" he says.
OH MY GOD!!!!. THe shaft had too much play. At certain rpms it would lean over to one side and only actuate one set of points. We bought a new distributer bushing for 50 cents and put it in. Problem solved.
I missed it, the dealer missed it and the oh so great chop shop guys missed it.
A 50 cent fix. I will never live it down.

[buellosaurusrex]

Consider it tuition for the Skool of Hard Knox.

[LWRider]

It's always the simple things that get me, too. I missed most of 2010 Bike Week on my CB350 when my left cylinder quit on International Speedway Drive, while amongst all those thousands of bikes. I managed to get it to a friend's house where I checked everything (well, not everything) and could not find the problem. Had to throw it in the back of my brother-in-law's truck and take it home. Once there, I took another look. I checked the continuity and it was fine. I put the cover on and checked again--none! The terminal had rotated and was shorting aginst the inside of the cover. I could have fixed it in half a minute had I found it up there. Lesson learned. Always check for anything that could have vibrated loose.

Cheers,

Mike

[lafouc82]

Great story!

[DoktorJazz]

Same thing happened to me too, Point; Had to U-Haul the Maddy home from Thousand Islands Bike Fest because it quit running. Tried new plugs and fresh gas; Fired right up; Two days later, it quit again. It happened a couple times until I looked at the wire connecting the fuel pump to the relay; Contacts would shake loose. Five minutes and a crimp tool would have saved me hundreds of dollars. GRRRRRR.......