New to ES2 - book suggestions!

Stuart

Theres not much info on the NOC site for singles, probably because there were so many engine, gear box, and frame changes over the years that one book would would hardly cover it all.

I find auto jumbles the best to buy manuals and pats lists as you can check if it is relevant to your bike.

There is tons of information on the net with down loadable downloadable manuals.

You can always ask questions here as well, but have to convince yourself replys are accurate.

At the end of the day singles are always going to be harder to get information and parts than the twins. But they make up for it by being more fun to ride and sounding nicer

just joking

Stuart.

A big single cylinder Norton is a joy to ride, but like all Nortons it wants a bit of owner input. Keep an eye on the engine, primery chain case oil, and gearbox oil.. Don't over rev it or expect it to be like a modern bike- just ride it at about 50mph on a wave torque

If you can't find the books you are looking for try:

http://bruce-main-smith.co.uk/

They have some3 originals and also copies of manuals and parts lists.

Mike

I've got a Hemmings belt drive onto a Commando clutch on mine, so it's a dry chain case.

There are a number of threads regarding sealing the primary chaincase - well worth a delve. I would advise against going for a dry primary chaincase. The primary chain does like to run in nice cooling, lubricating oil. A belt drive conversion is feasible but rather expensive but does solve the problem of oil leaks. In my experience, if you put the chaincase on according to the book, it is very effective. Oil can appear where the inner chaincase abuts the crankcase. Quite effective protection from winter salt so I don't worry too much about it.

Hi.

As Gordon notes above, the chaincase often appears to leak on the singles due to the timed crankcase breather that runs through the driveshaft exiting from a hole beneath the shaft behind the drive sprocket part of the chaincase. There is also a second ball-valve breather at 2 'o' clock to the shaft usualy routed to the gearbox sprocket which can alsochuck out a considerable amount of oil if the bike is used hard. On my ES2 I blocked off the timed crankshaft breather and enlarged the other, doing away with the ball-valve,leading a tube to the bottom ofa catch tank hidden (~250ml)under the seat. Exiting from the top of the tank, I have a tube down to the rear of the gearbox with a Royal Enfield 'duckbill' breather. Little, if any, oil is expelled from this, any oil caught in the tank makes its way back down the breather tube to the crankcase.

As far as literature on the singles - Roy Bacons 'Norton' Singles and Mick Woolett's 'Norton' are probably the best. A 56 parts book would be invaluable - although go by the part numbers,be wary ofthe illustrations (if there are any)as they didn't always update them. It will at least tell you what parts were shared by other models.

This is also worth looking at http://www.motos-anglaises.com/catalogues/Norton/catalogue_norton_1956_anglais.pdfOnce again, the pictures of the bike in the brochures were not alway accurate but it at least appears that they were updatedfor that year's catalogue.

Regards,

Ian.

You mean 'The Bible'! My Dad bought me this book 25 years ago, it was oil stained and falling apart then and has to be kept together in a plastic zip bag now! In the same 'Pearson' series is E M Franks' book - the one I have goes up to 1952 - maybe someone out there will know whether Garratt took over afterwards. The 'Pitman's' The Book of the Norton isn't bad either and is a lot cheaper and easier to find. Norton's own manuals come up on e-bay regularly. If you are restoring the bike back to original, look out for a roadtest of the period (and one of the Model 50 for that year - it's pretty near identical) they often give a better idea of the bike's appearance than the brochures.

I've had my ES2 for 35 years now, had faster bikes but none as much fun.

Good luck.

Ian.