It should all be so simple...but every time I find a plug, it differs from the others...
I'm now up to six different types of M80s, although probably only the two marked 'Corundite' are correct for 1940s use and most wartime 16Hs appear to have utilised the mica KS5. Some of these are 'Local Purchase' French produced examples..
Sven and I have an agreement to use detachable M80s in Normandy
I've used NOS wartime (well 40s anyway) M80s and have had two fail. One with a cracked insulator and another with tracking probs. If I get another fail I'll have to go with a modern equivalent as I've only one NOS one left in a tin as a spare in the toolbox
Me ? Showing off ? Kostas, how dare you suggest such a thing !
I keep thinking that once I've got 'one more', I'll have enough mica KS5s to use one...as it is, I've only just got to that stage with the detachable M80s as every example that I find has detail differences.
It was a decent day here yesterday and I cleaned the bike and then decided to do a 'Kit Inspection' photo but the angles didn't work out very well, by that time though, I'd got the plugs out as well.
There are a few things that aren't right on the toolkit....The puncture kit should be a 'Half-a-Crown' and there are a few extra matching spanners as this is a working toolkit...oddly enough, the extra tools would have got me on a charge back in 1940 just as quickly as having lost some...
Hi Rik,
may i ask what is that box spanner from the left side of the picture?
is it the original one with a hole in the centre of its lenght? i have never found one for my simple'standard' early wartime toolkit shown on the parts list.... is there any chance it can be replicated?
regards,
clive
Keith, the plug spanner is there but it's more or less hidden by the two spoon-ended tyre levers.
Clive, I believe that it is the correct LV7.NT.3780 - Tubular Box Spanner D.E. 5/16" Whit. Hex.
(DE in this context is 'Double-Ended' - there are also references to SE box spanners in the lists).
The late-war list describes it as 'Box Spanner for Cyl. head nuts'.
It has a discoloured WD paper label and I can read 'Hex. Sp' and 'Qty 1' but that's all. I've never removed the taped-on label so I don't know if it has any makers mark. It does indeed have a central hole. I assume that it's short to fit under the frame tubes but I don't really understand why it's double-ended 5/16" and not two different sizes.
I found it some years ago at Netley Marsh...A Welshman had a large bucket full of Norton toolkit spanners and I bought several of each sort...but not of this one as it looked 'wrong'.... Of course when I got back, I found that it was the right one. I think I could've had the bucketful for £20. Needless to say, I've looked for him every year since but he's never been back !
...Does the panel think that I should remove the now illegible label to see if it's marked underneath ?
Hi Rik,
thanks for the information. i think its probably the correct one. if you ever come across any surplus one just let me know unless you have someone else on the list. i did not aim for a 'full' toolkit for my Norton but just the tools shown in my contract's parts list. this is probably incorrect as the partslist is actually an older version than V7353 and has been adapted to the contract.
you asked an opinion about the label. you will probably come across another one some day so keeping it there for as long as you can help yourself would be a good idea. if it was mine i would probably loose patience and remove it, after taking a million super macro pictures as reference.....
Clive, I can certainly update you on toolkit spec up until C6127 (Cat Ref 19) as I have the 'Additional Equipment' sheets for that contract.
To be honest there is next to nothing visible on the label now. The spanner is kept oiled in the tool roll and does go out now and then when I'm feeling obsessive. The trouble is that oil and paper don't go well together. To preserve or to use as the maker intended ? It's the age old question. It's almost certainly a post-war label anyway !
If we could find two correct diameter box spanners with at least one 5/16"Whit. end, it would be quite possible to cut and weld them to form one short DE spanner.