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Post by re5rotary on Nov 12, 2015 23:10:38 GMT -5
Hi All Im sure I used to know the answer to these questions but Im getting old and did have a big bump to my head a couple of years back
Did all side plates have the 'spiral' pattern on them or did some have a solid coating all over?
Does anyone know what the material is in the 'spiral' grooves and has anyone ever had one recoated?
Ive just stripped 3 engines plus I have 2 spare side plates and a housing and not one side plate is useable and only one rotor housing! So it would seem this could be a problem if we want to keep our bikes running for the future. All the side plates have the material 'flaking' out of the 'spiral' grooves, One rotor housing has a small nick out of the face but may be useable at a pinch, 2 rotor housings have cracks across the spark plug hole, leaving the 1 good one
regards terry
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Post by wayne on Nov 12, 2015 23:27:40 GMT -5
To my knowledge, the very early engines had the sideplates fully coated and then they went to the spiral pattern. I'm sure someone at some time put up a picture of a fully coated sideplate.
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Post by goandy on Nov 13, 2015 0:29:17 GMT -5
The coating is molybdenum disulphide as used in the norton rotary engines.
Cracks at the spark plug holes are not ideal but you can reuse them. If they are cracked all the way to the edge I'd probably not though.
The actual surface of the rotor housing can be reground very carefully with a brand new emery stone and lots of water/oil. Use the fine side only. This is to correct bad chatter marks and grooves around the edges.
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Post by re5rotary on Nov 13, 2015 0:34:51 GMT -5
The first engine I stripped had the fully coated side plates and the other 3 have the 'spirals'. Interestingly the bike this engine came from is only 1 frame number away from mine yet mine has the spirals. All the engines still had the factory seal in place
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Post by re5rotary on Nov 13, 2015 0:37:35 GMT -5
So since you hear of Norton side plates being 're moleyed' then maybe the same could be done to an RE one?
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Post by wayne on Nov 13, 2015 1:39:58 GMT -5
Just one frame number ? Who knows how they did some of this stuff.
I believe that "molly-ing" Norton's is pretty standard practice. Surely the Mazda race shops in NZ would know of/do this ? Perhaps it could be adapted.
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Post by goandy on Nov 13, 2015 6:03:00 GMT -5
Mazda side plates are cast iron with a nitrided surface. The rotor housings are porous hard chrome so unfortunately completely different all round from ours!
Our housings are basically nikasil so there is the potential to get them recoated. Never been done afaik.
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Post by jm0406 on Nov 13, 2015 10:26:55 GMT -5
I am having some Norton Classic side plates coated in England right now. They mill a groove about .020" deep in a pattern that follows the rotor path (trochoid path), then fill it with molly and grind it flat and smooth. At some point, this could be done with RE5 plates, but would take some commitment.
Jeff
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Post by re5rotary on Nov 13, 2015 19:15:05 GMT -5
Hi those grooves are already there in most of the RE5 side plates. Who is doing the Norton plates for you? Maybe we can ask if they would do some RE5 ones? regards Terry
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