W/E 23rd March

Thought it was going to be an unproductive weekend but managed to achieve all I had to do on the Laverda’s after all – the Honda is still waiting for a replacement shock to be fitted which I guess is a sign that all is well in the Atlas household 🙂

The Atlas got it’s first oil change since returning to action – it’s done around 1,600 miles and is proving reliable. I drained the oil Friday evening and went to fill it back up on Saturday only to push the bike away from the sidestand and over it went! Damn the garage is just too full and mistakes keep getting made. Still lucky no damage other than a bent oil strainer which I think has a camchain guide on its top – nothing a hammer couldn’t put right! Fresh oil and it started fine – I could see two retaining screws in the Sachse ignition moving with the vibration – quickly sorted and another step towards completing the road hardening exercise.

Engine ran without oil but the cams appear to be okay…

So attention turned to the 120 triple motors. I wanted to get the alternator and primary sides off and also lift the cam box to look inside – especially to see what lurked in the RGS motor which I’d run dry! So attention turned to the RGS first mainly because it was on the bench. Nothing horrible revealed itself – the starter sprag has a broken retaining screw and the rollers and springs look in a bad way but otherwise it’s fine…even the dry cams appear okay.

RGA motor swinging in the wind…

The RGA was dragged out with the help of the hoist and similarly looks okay. This engine was taken out of service because of a big noise in the engine which was diagnosed as main bearings. I didn’t get that far and the only problem I could see was again with the sprag side of things. On the RGA to small metal plate that retains the sprag gear wheel had broken off and ended up in the alternator – surely that can’t account for the noise when it was last run? The other thing I noticed was how loose the sprag gear wheel was on the crankshaft. I haven’t measured it but my guess is the crank is worn at this point.

Alternator off, almost there

So both motors are at the point where all that is left is to remove the head, barrels and split the cases to really understand what’s been going on. Next weekend Dean is coming up to give me a hand – should be good.

Nick 🙂