Tom, you will probably have to resort to fine tuning your crow's foot concept to come up with a compact enough profile to fit.
I'm posting a photo of my Snap-On brand crow foot socket tool used to deal with the flare nuts on fuel injector pipes on the old Detroit Diesel Series 53 & 71 engines.
This tool was a must for being able to properly torque the flare nuts as no simple offset torque adapter would fit into the close confines of the area surrounding the injector and valve rocker arms on those engines.
I'm sort thinking this might work for you and would be a perfect TIG project.
I'm thinking a piece of flat stock to serve as the "reacher", with the appropriate hex size wrench on the fitting end welded to it.
For the other end, you can weld any old 3/8" socket to the flat bar to engage a ratchet or pull handle.
You might have to sacrifice a wrench end to fit the flats of the fitting, but if your toolbox is anything like mine, you probably already have at least one or two 3/8" drive sockets that are "worn out".
You can decide how long your reacher section needs to be.

Liking that Mownie, yes sir! I have a sacrificial socket picked out. Thought I would take a drain on my way to the auto parts store today just in case. though I wouldn't get to burn metal that way...

Also, if there's a way you can drill it to safety wire it to some nearby stationary fastener, you will never have to worry about it loosening. When you own a Norton Commando, safety wiring is your best (and sometimes only) friend :)

Safety wire a Triumph or BSA... absolutely, but I've never safety wired a Commando and never lost a single piece of hardware or even loosened an exhaust ring(nut) and I have built and serviced many, many Commandos.

Don't blame the Norton Commando... an Atlas or P11 is another story entirely.

Sorry, but my experience over the years has been totally different. Since I bought my Commando new in '74 I have always had trouble with the exhaust nuts coming loose. And until you have run one with 10:1 pistons as I do, I really don't want to hear about your success stories. New exhaust thread inserts, re-torque the nuts after several short runs and a few long ones, still constant loosening until the safety wire to the rocker nut is done. Not much else you can do when you have large differential expansion between an aluminum head and a steel exhaust nut, and the constant vibration working between the male and female threads. Brass exhaust inserts welded in do help though....some say you can then run it without safety wire. Haven't done that yet.

I've has Combat Commandos running 12:1 but that was back when there was Pure Firebird and Sunoco 260 to run them on and for riders who could kick them over. 10:1 wasn't enough of an imp[movement at sea level to waste the money on a head gasket.

My Norton experience predates your new 74 and skill and knowledge varies.

I apologize for you having to listen to my success stories if you won't damn a fine scooter by posting your failure at resolving a simple Norton problem. NEVER had a thread failure or the need to repair or replace the exhaust threads on any Commando I worked on or owned and never had a single drop of oil on the ground.

Back on point... Tom was inquiring if anyone had a better tool to get the thing tight. Once tight you can safety wire it to your heart's content.

The loose exhaust nut on a Norton Commando is a common and well known problem by anyone who knows anything about Commandos. See the link below. Enough said.

Here is a link that might be useful: Exhaust Nut fix

Please send all Norton Commados ppd to my home address please.... gotta love the snortin' norton. Will end up making a wrench. Stopped at Schucks or who ever they are this week and their O2 sensor wrenches were 7/8. Looking to keep the starters on the Kohler twins to be able to tighten these up during PM.

Yes, a common problem and many are baffled by the problem and unable to cure the exhaust nut disease so instead they treat the symptom and that as an American affliction which extends to those who can't get the Isolastic mounts to perform correctly as elegantly simple as they are. I said that I never had an exhaust ring(nut) come loose on any Commando I built or serviced not that many haven't had that problem.

You are no doubt an avid enthusiast and love your Norton while I was a professional who loved many Nortons and countless other marques. I cured many of the diseases that became legendary complaints with numerous marques while others whined and cried and hacked their way to cobbled solutions. I was trained by a factory Norton tech.

Based on what you've posted it's apparent to me that you don't know what you don't know about Nortons, but this is not the place for me to enlighten you.

My apologies to the forum.

This post was edited by justalurker on Sun, Mar 23, 14 at 11:40

I say: I know more than you and that makes you dumb :)