Atlas clutch and brake lever

I'm trying to find out what levers a 65 Norton atlas was equipped with. I believe the brake lever had the air control mounted on top of it with no adjuster but what about the clutch lever, did it also have no adjuster? If someone could take pictures I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Dave

drp said:

I…I believe the brake lever had the air control mounted on top of it with no adjuster but what about the clutch lever…

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Andover Norton sells them as a pair (original). But I don't like them, metric screws and not really well made.
I'll give the pair away for postage cost.

Fritz

My brother had a '65 Atlas. From memory ( we are going back 45 years, so consider it FWIW), the '65 levers were no different from my '63. Both were plain with no adjusters. The air lever is a separate assembly.

I will certainly defer to someone who has a '65 and is sure of the originality of the levers.

Slick

The owners/riders manual often has a riders view (sketch) of the handlebar layout, with everything labelled even.
This applicable to the Atlas ?

For an early dommie, it is very accurate as to what the factory supplied.
Although not photographic in quality.
(so can't read the brands on the levers or switches.

Nortons used unlabelled Doherty levers, for quite some years.
But Its a little arrow symbol in a circle.
Did the Atlas use these ?

Rohan said:

The owners/riders manual often has a riders view (sketch) of the handlebar layout, with everything labelled even.
This applicable to the Atlas ?

For an early dommie, it is very accurate as to what the factory supplied.
Although not photographic in quality.
(so can't read the brands on the levers or switches.

Nortons used unlabelled Doherty levers, for quite some years.
But Its a little arrow symbol in a circle.
Did the Atlas use these ?

Click to expand...

Good tip, Rohan!

The sketch in my manual - Publication P106/P (which covers Models 50, ES2, 88, 99, 650SS, and 750 Atlas and Scrambler with no date of publication) shows both levers as having plain ends, that is, no ball on the lever tips. The air lever is part of the brake assembly, and there are no adjusters on either lever. My Atlas came with ball end lever tips, and as I noted above, the air lever is separate from the brake lever.

I am sure this sketch was a carry-over from many years previous. It shows a headlight bucket with 120 mph speedo (which has zero at 1 o'clock), Prince of Darkness Lion medallion, ammeter, and key switch.

My Atlas has what looks like a little arrow in a circle on the clutch lever clamp. The brake lever clamp does not have this symbol. Looks suspiciously like Norton used whatever was on hand.

Slick

texasSlick said:

My brother had a '65 Atlas. From memory ( we are going back 45 years, so consider it FWIW), the '65 levers were no different from my '63. Both were plain with no adjusters. The air lever is a separate assembly.

I will certainly defer to someone who has a '65 and is sure of the originality of the levers. Slick

Click to expand...

+1
My 1965 Atlas was the same, I later fitted chrome ball end levers for the race track, also double speed oil pump e.t.c. below is the 1966 Atlas;

http://www.classic-british-motorcycles. ... atlas.html

Silly thought...
The Atlas employs an AMC clutch with 12 friction interfaces. The AMC clutch was designed to be employed in conjunction with a clutch lever having a 7/8 inch distance between the centres of the pivot point and cable nipple and, with the clutch adjuster turned back approx 1/2 a turn, and with the clutch lever back to the bar this gave a lift of approx 0.088 inch. Now for DRY moulded friction materials for good drag free freeing off a lift of approx 0.005 inch is required per interface thus with 12 interfaces 0.060 inch.
If you use the latewr 1 1/16 inch centres levers as used on the later Commando models (to increase the lift fopr the Commando clutch so it would actually free off correctly) with the lever back to the bar the lift is approx 0.128 inch which is far toooo much for an AMC clutch aqnd results in heavier clutch lever action.
Many are the Dominator owners over the decades who have fitted the wrong centre levers and spent decades moaning about heavy clutch lever action......