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Thursday, November 21, 2024

Welcome to the British Motorcycle Cable Helper

We usually make our own cables, especially carb cables. We accidentally deleted our notes for making them so as we figure them out again, we will put the specifications here. Terms:

Cable - A inner cable and any outer jackets. Could be a single outer jacket, two outer jackets with an adjuster between, etc.
Stickout - pull the inner cable to one end and measure from the end of the outer jacket to the finished end of the inner cable.
Outer Length - each segment of a cable has an outer jacket. This is the finished length of the outer jacket section.
Overall length - Some cables have two outer sections and an adjuster between them. This is a finished length of the outer cable with the adjuster at it's minimum length.
Notes:
- This specification assume handlebars that are 39" tip to tip and rise 4". Significantly wider/taller or narrowed/shorter will require cable length differences.
- In all cases, if an outer includes an in-line adjuster, the measurements are taken with the adjuster screwed all the way in.
- While these are for Norton, the stickouts should be correct for any Amal 30/32mm carbs.
- Where a junction box is mentioned, it's a genuine Amal part. There are others that are longer and shorter and one metal one I came across that causes the slides to hang on the stock Andover Norton cables it was so much too long.

Norton Commando Air

These cables require:

A cable adjuster on the top of the carb
A 2-way junction box, 2 cables with 10-5/8' outer length and 4" stickout. These go between the junction box and the air slide in the carb. Both outer jacket ends are simple ferrules.
A cable with one 6" outer, one 13-1/4" outer including an in-line cable adjuster. This makes a 19-1/4" overall length. The stickout is 3-5/16". All outer jacket ends are simple ferrules. The inner cable end closest to the cable adjuster is the type for the choke lever you have and all other ends are the small 1/8" diameter connectors for Amal cables and junction boxes.
I don't like where the cable adjuster ends up with standard cables so I make the short outer 2" and the long outer 17-1/4". The means that the tank has to come off to adjust it, but there's no reason to adjust once set. On bikes I'm keeping, I simply eliminate the choke - I consider them silly on Amal carbs!

Norton Commando Throttle

These cables require:

A cable adjuster on the top of the carb
A 2-way junction box, 2 cables with 10-1/2" outer length and stickout, min: 3-3/8", max" 3-1/2". These go between the junction box and the throttle valve in the carb. Both outer jacket ends are simple ferrules. See the picture to see how to measure.
A cable with one 6" outer, one 14-1/2" outer, and an an in-line cable adjuster. This makes a 21-1/2" overall length; however, I check this before cutting. These numbers came from two supposedly original cables and experience. All assembled including the junction box makes the outer length 34". For 33" wide 6" rise bars, 2 to 3" longer would be good. The stickout measurements are made with the adjuster at its shortest and they depend on the twist grip:
- Original Amal 364 type: 2-1/2" to 2-5/8". The ones I'm using are 2-9/16" which puts the cable adjuster in the middle of its adjustment.
- Wassell "Amal 364 Replica", Part: WW83217R requires, min: 2-1/2", max: 2-5/8"
- Wassell "Universal", Part: WW83219 requires 3-1/2". This is not recommended as the quality of the twist grip is not good.
- The throttle end cables from Andover Norton have either a 2.44" or a 3.06" stickout (they call it free length). My assumtion is that you need one of the twist grips they sell as an Amal replica as neither matches a real Amal twist grip or the Wassell replica. The 06.2032 appears to be the same as Wassell "Universal" (WW83219) and 01.,6658 is Genuine Amal type 16 - I don't know the stickout for those.
All outer jacket ends are simple ferrules. The inner cable end closest to the cable adjuster is the type for the throttle and all other ends are the small 1/8" diameter connectors for Amal cables and junction boxes.

Short cable from junction to carb:

Norton to Carb

Cable from junction to twist grip (WW83217R):

Norton to Twistgrip

Triumph T120/T140 Throttle

These cables require:

One cable per carb.
An in-line adjuster near the twist grip.
The ferrule shown in the picture for the top of the carb
With the original Amal 364 type twist grip, the required stickout is 3-7/8" as shown with the in-line adjuster screwed in all the way.

Burlen, the parent of the AMAL Carb Company

Tri-Spark, inovative electrical products for the Vintage British Motorcycle

Wassell, the 70+ year old suppliers of British Motorcycle parts

cNw has become a leader in bringing new parts and improvements to the Norton motorcycle market.