W/E 3rd November

Well been off on holidays for a couple of weeks but managed to get back down the shed.

I’ve sort of given up on the Atlas for now as I tried to get it going just before going away and it still won’t start on the button. Last time round I put it away and went back to it after 6 months and find a renewed enthusiasm so hopefully that’ll happen again.

Carried on with the RGA strip down but ran into a problem with the front silentbloc engine mount stud seizing meaning the engine wouldn’t come out. Tried using WD40 and a big hammer but no joy. Walked away before any damage was done and used the time to try and think it through.

I decided that getting the silentbloc mount off would take some doing so resolved to look at just undoing the two bolts that join the engine to the silentbloc bracket. This way I could leave the silentbloc in situ and work on it once the engine was out.

The odd thing was that although the bike is registered in 1984 it has the engine boss on the front which meant it was produced when a series two engine could either be a 180 or 120. This suggests to me that the motor was old stock crank cases which is probable considering Laverda were in dire financial straits back then. What I also noticed was that the left hand boss had a hole drilled in it which I presumed was for a 180 engine fitment.

Still giving yourself time to think is always useful and it finally dawned on me that the hole was there to slide a stud through – the lower engine mount is not a bolt but a stud with a nut on either end. Checked this out and yep that is it…only problem is that in undoing the nuts one has been left on the end of the stud so I will have to return with some mole grips to hold one end in order to get both nuts off and slide it through the hole. A job for when my eyes aren’t so tired. The plan however is hatched and is a testament to walking away before the hammers take over and the power of reflection.

The other thing about working on the RGA is that by this time Laverda were using flange nuts – so the bolt head is 13mm but the nut 12mm. Similarly a 17mm bolt head is twinned with a 14mm nut. Novel to be using 12 and 14mm spanners. I may well look into getting a stock of these nuts for when it is time to build it back up.

Nick 🙂