- This is the plate that stops the camshaft bearing from rotating and coming adrift in the main cambox casting

This is the countersunk screw used to retain securing plates for both main bearings in the crankcases and front camshaft bearings.

This listing is for a bag of 3 screws (we also sell a larger bag of 9 screws - Item 0024)

These screws are the correct coarse thread, length and most importantly - are unplated, which is very important - as the original design of these bearing plates was for the screws to be soldered to the bearing plate - to ensure they did not come loose and drop into the crankcase in use - causing severe damage.

The normal SOHC roadgoing models used a 3 plate bearing cover, as did the first camshaft bearing cover, while 30M/40M (pre Featherbed Manx) models used a 4 screw bearing plate.

It is extremely important that both the screws and the bearing plate are burnished clean before attempting to solder, and I have always found it easiest to use a good quality flux, and a small blowtorch - as a suprising amount of heat is required before solder will melt over the head of the screw.  Ideally - the solder should 'puddle' over the head of the screw and surrounding plate countersink - to ensure a good join.  You need to be very careful if using this method with some modern bearings - which have now switched from a bronze to nylon ball cage - the heat must be kept away from the bearing cage.

Final point - in practice it is extremely difficult to avoid some level of 'mess' when doing this job - and normally trying to cover the bearings with a cloth or tape is not practical because of the heat.  In preference - if fitting new bearings, I do not place any oil into the bearings after fitting - until after I have finished soldering the bearing plate.  After soldering, I very carefully capture and remove any traces of spattered solder or flux from the area . . . and if any solder has landed on the bearings I very carefully remove that, before final oiling of bearings.

 

This nut fits on the bevel end of the camshaft, and is lipped, to hold the special 'half moon' bevel pin (our Item 0065), and our nuts follow the original Norton design - the lip dimensions ensuring the pin is held captive and not rotate.

These nuts are CNC machinied in high tensile steel, and of course - the Hex is milled to the original Whitworth spanner size dimensions (hence why they are not the cheapest of nuts - requiring milling op).

Note:  This nut is 'Right Hand' (i.e. normal) thread, while the camshaft nut on the other end is a LH nut.  This nut is often used by SOHC owners to help set valve timing and rotating engine, so it is worth ensuring it is in as good a condition as possible - if your original has a worn thread or worn hex faces, it is often worth replacing.

As well as fitting all SOHC engines (Arthur Carrol type) it also fits most DOHC engines - including all the long stroke type).  Email for dimensions if you have a DOHC shortstroke engine and want to make sure).

- This nut fits on the end of the camshaft after fitting cams and roller back bearing - This nut should be tightened to 55lb sq inch, therefore it is extremely difficult to remove. Sometimes it is actually less destructive to destroy this nut when removing it from the camshaft. Back In Stock Dec 09 - And now CNC machined from solid high tensile EN8 round bar (as high tensile imperial hexagon bar is getting very difficult to obtain)

- This is the distinctive hardened pin fitted to all SOHC cambox's, that acts as the bearing pin for the cam rockers. This item is a faithful copy of an original, CNC machined, then hardened and ground. Please Note: This item is the standard pin fitted from early 1930's through to the late 1950's, however, very early engines had a slightly different pin. Please email me for details if you are unsure. Update Dec 2010: I will shortly be able to offer the entire cam rocker bearing assembly as well as a fitting and honing service. Please email for details if you are interested

- This is the castellated nut that is used with the rocker pin, it being castellated to allow for iit to be locked with a split pin once tightened. This nut is patterened on an original, but is made in Stainless Steel, so it will not rust

Cambox rocker outer bearing assembly, consisting of one phospher bronze bearing cage, one outer bearing, 2 hardened side washers and 12 rollers. Background : If you are lucky enough to find a cambox, or rocker arms for the engine you are restoring, chances are you will find that the rocker bearings are seized or badly worn and probably that the rocker pin is badly pitted or marked. I was able to offer the Rocker Pins some time ago (identical in construction to the originals), but I have now had the remaining parts manufactured, the construction and layout (using small individual rollers in a bronze cage) being just as per the original. What may be a suprise though, is that the original Imperial rollers used by Norton's have been obsolete for some time and are now virtually unobtainable. Because of this I have had the outer bearing made in a fractionally different size to take account of now having to use equivelant modern metric rollers (which are about 2 thou different in diameter from the imperial versions). Because of this I have also had to have the phoshper bronze roller cages made to similar dimensions to accept the marginally different circumferential axis of these rollers, surrounding the Rocker pin (hope that makes sense!). Please note though - the Rocker Pin has been made exactly the same as an original, so it is interchangeable with original rocker assemblies if you only want to fit a new Rocker Pin. This new bearing assembly, although employing metric dimesions, is matched to that imperial Rocker Pin, so they are a matched set and interchangeable with original Norton Rocker Pins.

Important Note:  I definitely recommend taking up our Honing service with these rocker bearings.  The outer cage of the bearing has to be pressed into the rocker arm (which is best done with a press jig in a flypress - which we use) . . . but after this process is complete it is not uncommon to find the bearing once assembled is not easily free running - that is why originally these outer bearing faces were always honed after fitting.  As an example - I always carry out this honing process on my own rocker arms after fitting new bearings - the difference being that rather a rocker arm needing a push to move it, once honed it will wobble by itself! . . . imagine the amount of power sap that equates to at 5000rpm!  We offer this honing service as well - see Item Listing 0059e

Complete cambox rocker bearing assembly, consisting of one phospher bronze bearing cage, one outer bearing, 2 hardened side washers,12 rollers and also the cam rocker pivot bolt and castellated nut. Background : If you are lucky enough to find a cambox, or rocker arms for the engine you are restoring, chances are you will find that the rocker bearings are seized or badly worn and probably that the rocker pin is badly pitted or marked. I was able to offer the Rocker Pins some time ago (identical in construction to the originals), but I have now had the remaining parts manufactured, the construction and layout (using small individual rollers in a bronze cage) being just as per the original. What may be a suprise though, is that the original Imperial rollers used by Norton's have been obsolete for some time and are now virtually unobtainable. Because of this I have had the outer bearing made in a fractionally different size to take account of now having to use equivelant modern metric rollers (which are about 2 thou different in diameter from the imperial versions). Because of this I have also had to have the phoshper bronze roller cages made to similar dimensions to accept the marginally different circumferential axis of these rollers, surrounding the Rocker pin (hope that makes sense!). Please note though - the Rocker Pin has been made exactly the same as an original, so it is interchangeable with original rocker assemblies if you only want to fit a new Rocker Pin. This new bearing assembly, although employing metric dimesions, is matched to that imperial Rocker Pin, so they are a matched set and interchangeable with original Norton Rocker Pins. Buying this full set is slightly cheaper than buying the parts seperately

This listing is for an original type (i.e original obsolete type Imperial rollers) Replacement phosphor bronze cage, rollers and hardened side washers - for those owners of original SOHC camboxs (1934-58), who do not wish to repace the original imperial outer bearing, that is pressed into their rocker arms.  We have these rollers made specially for us, as the original roller size is now obsolete. 

Price is per set for one rocker arm

As background to this listing - the Norton SOHC cambox from 1934 onwards standardised its rocker arm design to have an outer bearing, bronze cage wtih 12 rollers and a hardened rocker pin with hardened side washers for each rocker arm.  Although there were other minor differences, this rocker arm bearing design continued for the lifetime of the SOHC cambox. 

However, the 12 rollers in this original design were of an obscure Imperial size and have been commercially unavailable for many years.  Therefore in the past - when offering our complete Rocker Arm Bearing sets (our Item 0059C) - we have had to have the outer bearing and bronze Cage machined to the dimensions to accept modern metric rollers.  Although there is only a few thou difference between the imperial and metric rollers - it has meant the complete bearing set needs to be replaced (which of course is the corret way to change bearing sets!).

However, we appreciate that some owners do not like going to all the trouble of pressing out the old Outer Race from the rocker arm (particularly as the new outer race should always be lightly honed once pressed in) - therefore we have now had a batch of the original Imperial type rollers specially made for us (which obviously was a lot more expensive than normal commercially available rollers), as well as CNC manufactured phosphor bronze cages, also manufactured to the original Imperial dimensions.

Therefore if you have an original cambox which has rocker arms with the outer cage still in relatively good condition, and only wish to replace the original brone cage and rollers (and the hardened washers - which must be punched out to remove the original cage and rollers) - then we can now offer this options by choosing this kit.

It is worth stating that our Rocker Pins (Item 0059A) are manufactured to the original Imperial Dimensions and will fit both these rockers bearing sets and the full (metric roller) replacement bearing sets (Item 0059C)

This listing is for a single rocker arm set consisting - Imperial dimension bronze cage, one set of imperial rollers and 2 hardened side washers.  (therefore 2 sets of these are required per cambox).

Email us on sales@racingvincent.co.uk if you need further information relating to fitting new rocker bearings, or have an earlier pre-34 cambox, which may have different type rocker bearings

To fit the rocker arm bearing assembly, it is necessary to press out the old outer bearing race and side washers, and press in the new outer bearing.

To do this really requires some form of press (although I am sure the correct spacers and a good vice could also do the job!). Then once fitted, the outer bearing should really be honed, as it is inclined to close up fractionally as part of the pressing in process.

With this in mind I offer a service to take your old rocker arm (which you should post to me fully insured), and I will fit and hone the complete bearing assembly. The rocker arm will be sent back to you with the bearing assembled and honed, side washers fitted and the assembly lubricated with castor oil. (Please note though, the cost quoted is for a standard rocker arm supplied to us bare, having had the old bearing removed, other than the outer sleeve - which we can remove when fitting the new one. 

If anything is non standard that requires resolution or repair - we may not be able to carry out that work - so please confirm before hand.  This service is for the fitting of the new rocker bearings only - it does not include fitting of rocker pads, 3 piece adjusters or any other work on the rocker arm. Price is per Rocker Arm. Postage back to you will be additional to this, and the rocker arm will be sent back to you fully insured at cost.

Please Note:  Do not send rockers without contacting us first!  If you place an order for this service we will email you back to confirm the availabiliy, as it may be some time before we can carry out the service.  It is also a good idea to send photos of the rocker arms first so we can correct they are the right type and original, to have this operation on them (there were different types of rockers fitted in the early years with different diameter rocker bearings.

Note: this honing service is carried out on a professional honing machine - a Delapena Speedhone, probably very similar to the one used by Norton's themselves!