What did you do with your P11 today. he he

I don't have any major plans to do much else with the P11. Time for me to suit up and go for a ride.

142 miles today.

Gassed up at my pre-determined turnaround point in Darrington WA and a guy younger than I maybe in his late 50's stopped looked at me and said "An old Norton." I said, "Yes." He then told me he is restoring a CB200. I might have said, "Cool." He then said, "How far can you ride a Norton before you have to work on it?" I said, "About 10 feet." I wanted to make him happy. He laughed. Mission accomplished.

Schwany said:

142 miles today.

Gassed up at my pre-determined turnaround point in Darrington WA and a guy younger than I maybe in his late 50's stopped looked at me and said "An old Norton." I said, "Yes." He then told me he is restoring a CB200. I might have said, "Cool." He then said, "How far can you ride a Norton before you have to work on it?" I said, "About 10 feet." I wanted to make him happy. He laughed. Mission accomplished.

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Darrington, hmm. I was so close. I spent last year in Anacortes WA, and explored the area just north, up to Mt. Baker. What a beautiful place. My dad lived in Birch Bay. the hydro projects around Baker are amazing. I had my N15 with me but it wasn't quite ready to ride. Dang!

gpzkat said:

Darrington, hmm. I was so close. I spent last year in Anacortes WA, and explored the area just north, up to Mt. Baker. What a beautiful place. My dad lived in Birch Bay. the hydro projects around Baker are amazing. I had my N15 with me but it wasn't quite ready to ride. Dang!

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The ride up to Artist Point on Mt Baker is a good one. Fairly long day in the seat from my place. North Cascade Hwy 20 over to Winthrop is really nice when the traffic is light. That is a gotta get up at the crack of dawn ride in the summer. Riding the P11 over there from my place is a workout. I doubt I'll be doing that again on the P11. It was a great ride on my BMW R1100GS. Dinner bell is ringing gotta go.

Today I finished up another 1/8" full perimeter primary cover spacer. Now have 3 stacked making a 3/8" thick spacer for the belt clutch in the P11.

Schwany said:

Today I finished up another 1/8" full perimeter primary cover spacer. Now have 3 stacked making a 3/8" thick spacer for the belt clutch in the P11.

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I'd like to do that to my N15CS, maybe someday - make some extras

gpzkat said:

I'd like to do that to my N15CS, maybe someday - make some extras

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I'm really slow at making those because I don't have the tools to do it in high volume.

Couple of notes: If one has the tools, it would make a lot of sense to just cut one out of 3/8" aluminum sheet. 3/8" of spacer has better clearance. Other modifications may be required. For example, the footrest hardware has to be reshaped to clear the outer cover hump on a P11. The N15CS has different footrest hardware and might work without the modification.

This too: Out of the 14 socket head bolts (AN calls them screws) I have only 6 are actually long enough to hold the outer cover on relatively securely. Minimum length would be 1.25". 1.5" length would be better. The 1/4"-26 x 1.5" stainless socket head bolts are $5 per from vendors that carry them. I'm not broke or on a tight budget, but I refuse to pay $5 per for those little bolts. So I might install helicoils in the inner cover and go to an easy to find on Amazon socket head bolt in 1/4". Might cost a dollar less than $5 per by the time I get done, but I'd have bolts I could easily get and stronger threads in the inner cover.

Looks like a waterjet could cut that spacer in a minute in 3/8" material. I wonder if there's a lot of programing involved to duplicate that shape, or can those machines follow a pattern, or somehow scan a part to create the cutting pattern. The welder who I use for my projects has a waterjet in his shop. I'm curious about it and I've tried to talk to the waterjet dude when I was down there having something welded,.... but he was giving me the "don't bother me" vibe, so I didn't get to ask him any questions. My exhaust rose tightening tool's tooth broke and I wondered what it would cost for him to cut me a new one out of scrap... Something tells me he's going to say, $200. for a tool I can buy for $20. brand new.... I get the feeling that they charge a lot to use that tool

Yeppers a water jet would do it. Mucho Denaro

You'd probably only need to do about 50 of them to get the price down near $100.

Do you have the old BMW exhaust rose tightener tool for airheads? It might be tough enough if it fit. Then again maybe not.

I don't have exhaust roses. I slide the headers onto screw-in spigots and clamp them with Triumph clamps.

I think my exhaust wrench is sold as a norton exhaust rose tightener but I'm not sure now that you mention it. I think Denis Jon Cavalier gave me this one because I didn't, buy it but somehow I have one... It's got light blue paint on it and an actual black rubber handle so it's not homemade. Of course, last year a big crack opened up right at the tooth area making me go back to using a monkey wrench in it's place. That's what made me wonder if a waterjet can make freehand cuts to reproduce it out of scrap material sitting around the welder's shop. There's no lateral force on a waterjet like the spinning blade of a tablesaw which makes freehand cuts more dangerous.... (even though I do occasionally freehand stuff through the tablesaw) the waterjet is more like a bandsaw where the force pushes the work down on the table, so nothing can go flying... The welder has a $60. minimum cost to do anything, and I've paid him a lot over the years. It's prolly cheaper just to buy another one but I like to fix shit that other people would throw out

o0norton0o said:

I think my exhaust wrench is sold as a norton exhaust rose tightener but I'm not sure now that you mention it. I think Denis Jon Cavalier gave me this one because I didn't, buy it but somehow I have one... It's got light blue paint on it and an actual black rubber handle so it's not homemade. Of course, last year a big crack opened up right at the tooth area making me go back to using a monkey wrench in it's place.

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This is the BMW rose wrench I used on the 3 BMWs I owned. It worked fine, but I don't think the roses had to be torqued down that hard on the BMWs. I'm holding onto it in case my exhaust rots out and I decide to put a Ranger style exhaust on the P11 that would require the use of stock style roses. Not sure if it would work for a Norton. I've only read that it could on this site somewhere. Could be fiction.

That's nice, but that would never work on my exhaust roses, I've crushed the spikes with the monkey wrench... This is what I've got. You can't see it in the picture but the tooth has a crack at the base, so the next use is going to blow the tooth right off the lever. It's just a piece of flat steel which is why I thought the waterjet was the tool to reproduce it... I'll probably just get the tooth welded by a friend. No way I'm paying $60. bucks to fix it when a new one costs a lot less..

Having no special tool, I just fitted a cut off finger of a leather glove onto the end of a drift and gave the thick spline a reasonable whack when the engine's warm. So far so good, a bit tricky angles sometimes to get to the thick one though.

For the that will never work advisors:

Being the red dirt barn yard shade tree mechanic that I am I threaded the 1/4"-26tpi holes in the inner primary cover with a 1/4"-20tpi SAE tap to see if they would hold torque when tightening up the outer primary case. Low and behold it works well enough for dry cases. The 1/4"-20 x 1 1/2" socket bolts/screws go through the outer primary and 3/8" spacer then thread in about 5/8" until flush with the backside of the inner case. Didn't strip a single one. However, it is possible that the vibration might loosen things up. I have 1/4-20 SAE helicoil like inserts if I have to repair anything sometime in the future. The center 3/8" - 18 threaded rod double nutted holds the outer case on even if the 1/4" bolts work loose. Unlikely though with blue loctite.

I know it is a sin to not use what Norton used, but I don't give a rat's rear end about originality. And I got 25 1/4"-20 x 1 1/2" bolts for the cost of two 1/4"-26 x 1" bolts from AN. I like that math.

This is not recommended, but so far it could be working. I've tried this before without success, but I think I had a timing issue combined with main jets that were too small at the time. I figure if o0norton0o is doing it and not seeing anything negative about it, I should try it again since I've sorted out all my tuning issues.

I hooked up the cam driven timed breather with an inline PVC valve. The hose terminates over my rear chain. Splish splash, actually it's not that bad because I also have the cNw reed valve on the back of the timing side case.

Why do it? I wanted to get all the pressure I can out of the crank case. Most of the pressure still goes out through the reed valve, but some escapes through the timed breather. What I got out of it was a higher idle than I had previously once the engine is warmed up, so I think it is working to relieve more pressure at low RPM. Only negative thing is it sounds like a mini muffled exhaust or bad head gasket leak at idle. Can't hear it underway.

Other thing I did last week was replace the dead older 0005 TriSpark ignition with the newer 0006 version. Happy to report it works so far.

TriSpark is also listing a 0007 short dwell version that comes in a kit form with their coils.

On my timed breather modification, I simply just installed the Jim Schmidt reed valve to improve the sealing quality of the timed breather port. It threads into the port opening so the reed is very close to the source of pressure.

Like you, I have 2 breather ports, so all the addition of the reed valve to the timed breather port does is eliminate that port's poor sealing quality. It can't help it's improve the timed disc's exhaling quantity but it makes a much better seal than the timed port on the piston upstroke which is essential for lowering the crankcase pressure.

It looks like Diss!



and my timing side looks like diss..



both hoses go into a "Y" hose fitting before going into the oil tank. If you don't have a reed breather on the timed port, then you only get the benefit of a second port for air to escape from, but because the timed port is so inefficient at sealing on the piston upstroke, you have to wonder how much better adding the reed valve to that port would be.... In my case, with only the timing side breather, I would occasionally get some oil seepage out of the tachometer cable mount area. After I installed Jim Schmidt's breather on the rotating disc port, I rarely get any leakage there... so I conclude that the addition improved my crankcase breathing at least a little bit.....

For a while also my engine has been ticking at idle, and it has been bothering me. I wondered if it might be a loose connecting rod cap rattling or some valve gone sloppy in the guide... Eventually I located the source and it was the JS reed valve at certain rpm's happily tapping away... Freaked me out of about a week

Every little bit helps.

When I hooked up the timed breather the first time, I Y'd into the cNw breather hose up to the oil tank. I didn't want to do that this time because it is a test and some work. It would be a snakes nest of hoses and plug wires right behind the barrels on my straight up engine in my frame. What I've done works well enough on the street with the PCV valve. It's not a cheap tin or plastic valve and actually does work to prevent the sucking back.

You can hear ticking? Mine is an orchestra of noises that would scare just about anyone that owns a modern motorcycle. Keeps running though, and I'll beat on it till it doesn't.

(oops on the non P11 specific but they are cousins, no?) I just went stock on my N15CS's breather, and haven't noticed any probs yet. But time will tell. Perhaps I'm not riding it hard enough yet, it's only got a few hundred miles on it.

I did park my '82 Suzuki GS1100E too close to my Norton, and the N15 inherited a part off the Suzuki when they got too close. I don't like the rev counter drive chafing the exhaust. This seems to work. Need to add a washer, this is just test fit. Sorry not P11 specific but maybe a similar chafing issue?

Staying on topic on Access Norton is not a requirement. It would be a rarity if it happened.

I'm actually not positive, but I think the N15 has the same engine as a P11 if it has the big sump plug on the bottom. The frames are definitely different. My engine has a few modifications for using Commando cams and ignition in the timing cover. Your tach drive would be the same as a P11.

The timed breather worked for me with the stock cam. I could use it by itself with the JS2 cam more than likely. However, I rebuilt the motor in the late 80's and put a SS cam in it that did not have the timed breather support machining, so had to come up with another way to get crank case pressure out. Easiest solution was make use of the hole where the magneto was previously. I made a magneto cover with some threaded holes in it and plumbed 3/8" hose up to the oil tank. The oil tank already had the vent hose on it. I ran the vent hose out to the rear fender. That was not nice though because it spewed drops of frothy oil on the face shields of anyone behind me until we hit a long enough straight for them to get around me. I eventually rigged up another vent tower with an air filter and a catch can. Then parked it for 27 years and rode modern technology.

By the way, being in a hurry when I put the SS cam in the engine and the engine back in the frame I tried riding it without adequate crank case pressure relief. It struggled to do 60mph. That was a buzz kill and a learning experience figuring all that out before the internet existed.

Yeah I think they are pretty much the same engine-wise. Frame is a heavy monstrosity with sidecar lugs and did off-road duty. It does the job but P11 is a degree or three better/cooler in my eyes. Hey it landed on my lap and I rolled with the N15 haha. Mine is stock cam, single carb, oil pressure is good, has the big oil drain and I have one with the 2nd smaller drain because it is wet-sumping and I haven't gotten around to a proper fix yet.