Hi I am rebuilding a 1953 Dommi and have had the crank reground and the rods reworked to return them to spec on the big ends. I have disassembled the crankshaft and cleaned out the sludge trap. It was pretty clean. Now the question. Should I reuse the crankbolts and studs or must they be replaced with new? A racer friend says must replace as the cost of the bolts and studs is cheap compared to the cost of damage that can happen. I can see that, but you can't replace everything without the cost going through the roof. I read through the Norton manuals nothing there and Modern Motorcycle Mechanics by J.B.Nicholson and nothing there. Although he does mention on reassembly to lock the bolts nuts with a center punch. The same question on the rod bolts and nuts. These are smaller than commando and have castellated nuts and cotter's? This is going to be a vintage rider. Thanks in advance

I have found the replacement hardware being offered as garbage. I currently am still reusing the originals and chase the threads with die and tap. Though I would suggest measuring the diameter to detect deformation/stretch. I do not believe in deforming the hardware as was practiced originally. I use red loctite(270?) on the rod nuts and crank hardware only.... anything else in the motor that I do bother with loctite only gets blue (242?)

The late John Hudson, service manager at Nortons said in one of his published articles that the cross studs can be re used if the threads are not elongated. There isn't sufficient room to get a really large tool on the nuts to overtighten them. Apparently the thread in the nut is more prone to distortion. You can use Loctite on the threads. Hope this helps. Regards, Simon.