P11A,back on the road

They were printed , but not easy to find in the UK ,  You may be able to get a re-print. One of the leading experts resides in the UK. So ask away . You may be lucky.

Giovanni; Congratulation on acquiring your P11. Norton Atlas manuals will cover the motor and gearbox (although the gearbox shell is Matchless. Different Mounting lug location). A large issue with the P11 is keeping all the fame pacers in there correct locations when you take it apart. If it were my bike I would do a complete maintenance check for the peace of mind that everything is as it should be. Are you familiar with the Atlas Hybrids 2 tab under the History tab of the homepage? Anthony Curzon: hybrids@nortonownersclub.org, is our expert in residence.

There were two handbooks printed for the P11 series of bikes. The P11, G80CS, G85CS, with the red cover was published in March 1967. The P11A, G80CS, G85CS with the blue cover was published in January 1968. There were two parts books, for the P11A one was A4, and one A5 size for the P11A  series of bikes. The other parts book is for the high pipe single seat P11 only. The main points to check would be if the bike has been used for any sort of off road competition racing, as the lower frame tubes, and the front frame tubes can fracture. There were five types of oil tank used on the P11 series of bikes. Three alloy and two steel, so check that there is not any cracks in the seams of the oil tank.  As your is a P11A  if it is a later one it would have the steel oil tank or the forth one in the oil tank series of designs.The prop stand can be a problem if it is not fitted correctly. ANIL has a large stock of parts as well as selling the handbooks. I have seen the early P11 handbook that they sell, the one with the high pipes, but they may by now be selling the P11A blue cover one. The handbooks do not have a huge amount of info, but they do have enough for you to do the maintenance that you require. There was a company that i saw at the Stafford show many years ago, selling the P11A handbook. The front forks on the P11A are of the AMC Teledraulic type, and they have standard internals, and not the earlier P11 G80CS competition internals. One thing to be very careful of is that there is a mistake in both the P11 series of handbooks. This mistake in all the AMC parts books diagrams, goes from about 1956 up until 1968.This is for the rear wheel diagram of the rear wheels bearings and spacer arrangement.The rear wheel can suddenly lock up and the speedo cable wraps around the rear wheel spindle, and only releases when the speedo cable breaks. This is a very well know fault in AMC circles, and ownership. The oil seal on the speedo drive side should not go inside the cup but on the out side to the left. It is more of a spacer than an oil seal. Get this wrong, and it is only a matter of time before the inevitable will happens. 

Is it like the G25 CS where (according to the F Neil book) the pushrod must be pulled up out of the head before the head can be taken off?  That requires exhaust rocker spindles to be extracted.

That would be the G15CS/N15CS  where by the pushrods have to be pushed up into the inside of the cylinder head, and the exhaust rocker spindles were extracted to be able to do this. The cylinder head then can be tilted, and then removed from the cylinder barrel. The front engine plates can also be removed, and the engine moves down, and this is another way to take off that cylinder head.  The three cylinder head studs were 3/8 of an inch shorter than the standard Atlas ones, to be able to do this. The Norton workshop manual has a picture of the factory doing this. Ray Lightfoot, who was a factory road tester, and worked on the assembly line explained to me that he had managed to get the cylinder head off a G15CS with out taking out the rocker spindles. The foreman had tried and failed, and Ray had managed to do it, and left it beside the bike for the foreman to find it.  

You never said what P11A  that you had as there were three variations of the P11A. The P11A, P11A Ranger, and the P11A Ranger 750. The three different types, also had a change of frame, oil tanks, battery covers, petrol tanks, wheels, as well as many other components in the development of the P11 series. If it has been standing for so long, you had better drain the engine oil, and check the gearbox oil, because it would have wet sumped by then. The primary chain-case's were also modified on the later editions. The bores will need to be checked, so you had better put some oil down the spark plug holes. The carbs may also need to be checked in case there is a stuck throttle valve. The tappets are set at the standard Atlas settings, being .006 inlet and .008 thou exhaust. The contact breaker if you still have them would have been the Lucas 6CA, and set between .014in/.016in, and the A.R  unit was a Lucas 54419340, but the later Lucas AR unit the 54425657 was very much improved and modified one if you decide to keep the mechanical AR units. The petrol tank takes 2.2 gallons, and the oil tank would take 6 pints (USA) but less for imperial measures. The front forks being of the AMC Teledrulaic patten takes 6.5 fluid oz of SAE 20 oil per leg. The front chain-case will take 8 fluid oz, and the gearbox one pint of oil. For the spark plugs you can use Champion N4 or NGK B7ES, and the gap would be 0.025 thou. There is a felt wick lubricator for the CB, that will require a few drops of light oil, but you may be going for some form of electronic ignition. The condensers were located on a bracket between the Lucas MA12 coils  where the earlier P11 high pipe single seat P11's had the ignition switch on a bracket 033174. This bracket was moved to the side of the front rear lower down tube. The battery was a 12 volt Lucas PUZ5A so you may need to find a modern equivalent for it. The P11 series has an American only rear brake circuit, they will only work when the ignition is switched on, so do not be alarmed if it does not work when you try it with out turning the key for the ignition to start the bike. All the P11 series had a capacitor ignition system, so the bike will run normally with out the battery connected. This is the Lucas 2MC capacitor on the spring located under the battery cover. The later P11A Ranger 750 had the 5th in the series of oil tank changes with a modified oil tank to stop the oil tank cracking problems, that these bikes had encountered earlier on. There were three alloy oil tanks and two steel oil tanks making five different types of oil tanks used in all the P11 series of bikes. There were four different battery covers, and they all have differences. The last P11A Ranger 750 ones, had a much more of a curve to the cover. The very early P11 single seat bikes had a reinforced inner rim. On your P11A  you had better check that the three fastening points for the battery cover a still in place on the frame.