Week 28: 2nd July

A couple of VFR days but I don’t grudge that as the Atlas was being fixed by visiting American Laverda mechanic Scott Potter.

Scott got to work on the Atlas and fixed the starting problem with new plugs and trimming the ends of the HT leads. Scott also went into the motor and replaced the camchain and checked the clearances (which were not too badly out).

In addition to the Atlas Scott also set his sights on the RGS front brakes which he bled up for me. The trick was to take the master cylinder off the bars and tap with a wooden mallet to get air out of the lines. Now the brakes are sorted there isn’t that much left to get this back on the road – this will now be my focus.

The big ticket though was getting the Jota engine out of the frame and dismantled. The engine has sat in the frame for more than 5 years as doubts were put in my mind about the condition of the conrods.

My caution was fully justified when the crank was inspected. The conrods had been dressed by a grinder going across and not down the length which would introduce stressors all the way down. There was also a lot of evidence of balancing which appeared untidy if not terminal!

Another major concern was the centre pin which had been pushed too far into the web – the end as you can see has been pressed past ‘flush’.

Anyways all this can be resolved with some secondhand rods and a new balance and bearing package. This will take two months so the race is on to get everything else ready in time for the autumn build-up.

Nick 🙂