A ‘lost’ weekend. Visited friends so didn’t have much time. Did manage to take the fork tops off however and pour out the old oil – well at least what was still in there! I didn’t measure it but I’d guess at less than a 100 ml came out (should have 300 ml). When I was riding the RGS regularly I’d used ATF instead of pukka fork oil – jeez the smell of this old ATF certainly lingered!
I had a look at the forks and the inners and couldn’t see anything wrong. The fork seals are fine, infact they were dry and didn’t need replacing – those fork gaiters off an Enfield India get the thumbs up! I’d expected the fork springs to have ruptured the pre-load spacer as had happened once before and made the forks sag. Nothing this time round so I’m hoping once I put the fresh, genuine SAE 10 weight fork oil in everything will be okay.
My trip down to the New Forest to see friends wasn’t a complete wipe out in terms of working on the Laverdas. I’d picked up a tip when buying some Morris’s 20/50 from a local garage that a firm down in Fordingbridge might be able to knock up some replacement valves for the 100. A quick call confirmed this so the family trip took a minor detour. Reckon it could be around £40 per valve but given how difficult it is to find these valves that sounds like good value.
No VFR days this week – the Atlas sprag held up, helped I suspect by the milder weather and the fact I only went out three times. The Atlas still isn’t starting that well however and I have had to crank the engine quite a bit to get it to fire up. I have thought got the Australian sprag springs. These look a lot tougher than the standard springs – although also a bit shorter. In a way I wouldn’t mind if the sprag gave up again so I had an excuse to see how these antipodean beauties go!
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 