Manuals

Luckily, we see some new Norton owners. Some quite young. When new to Nortons, you probably don't know many  people to ask.So you have to find and read printed manuals and part lists. Or going for information on the web. Except for us elderly folks who had no other option than reading printed matter to learn about the bikes, most people today goes to the web for info. So I don't think that it's a lack of manuals that is the problem. It's only the way how to search for answers. Although most needed information is in the manuals, it is not always easy to find and understand it.

My impression is that  there was little in the way of  explicit manuals  from Bracebridge St , and my early  Norton  work was mostly facilitated by  a Haynes  manual.  Some makers  produced really good  information  ,I can remember being utterly astonished by the detail  on some BSA  literature. Woolwich manuals were better (although John Hudson was not at all impressed by them).

I posted my Excel list of factory Norton manuals/owner's handbooks and Parts Lists a while ago and it gained no interest ,so I'm not sure why people think there wasn't much forthcoming from Bracebridge Street.  I've accumulated a fair collection of post-war (WW2!) publications.  I also have various Haynes, Mick Walker, Roy Bacon and Steve Wilson books.

I attach a PDF of my own, accumulated over the years from autojumbles and shows as well as electronic versions from the interweb.  It's scary how much some people are trying to sell them for on eBay!  £50 or more!

I have often transferred documents to other users if required.  Our job is to share that knowledge. John and Simon have a great library of prewar related docs. on line at their site. I’m sure there are plenty of postwar docs that could be made available without infringement…

Jon

The problem with making them public is that they are nearly all likely to be covered by copyright. Who currently owns the copyright may be obscure, and hence the potential subject of litigation, but in principle someone does.

UK copyright currently is for the life of the author plus 70 years; however, items such as workshop manuals have probably been produced by employees, so the original copyright is likely to have been vested in the factory. Since copyright can be sold, the possible current ownership is anyone's guess.

... doesn't seem to bother some people. Check out the AMC stuff on Christian's archive - much of which is applicable to Nortons. http://archives.jampot.dk/

There are also pdf Norton manuals around such as here: https://www.wdnorton.nl/

Try this site  

http://www.classicbike.biz/Norton/Norton.htm

The parts manuals and repair manuals are good from 1960 onwards

I have found earlier manuals on ebay  cheaply

Laurence

I have a copy of this (plus other manuals) in F. Neill's hardback publication "Norton Service And Overhaul Manual".  His book has better photo reproduction as the pages have been properly scanned in greyscale.  The photos aren't "sooty" like Classic Bike's.

It is published by Lodgemark Press Ltd. but there is no printing or edition date.  It's a compilation of several original Norton Manuals so is very useful.

It's pretty generic for all twins and Model 50 & ES2 Singles.

A quick search on Google (which anyone can do!) shows that manuals are available from Amazon (F.Neill) and Andover-Norton.