Road hardening on the Atlas continues and damn if it didn’t break down again on Monday!
Got to London and stalled it in traffic (due to a limp clutch) and when I went to start it the battery was flat…Pushed it to the side of the busy A4 just off Chiswick and phoned a friend driving into the office who I’d passed a few miles back on the M4. By the time Rob rocked up the battery was on the verge ready to be charged by the guys who service lorries on my site.
The battery charged up over the day and when I returned it was all good to go…except Hounslow council had slapped a £55 parking ticket on the bike – Grrrrrrrrrrr! Still it started and ran home just fine. When I got in I checked the charging and it read around 14 volts when revved. Spent the rest of the week carrying my own battery charger and each night I checked out the charging rate – all checked out fine and all I can think is that when I sprayed the bike with ACF 50 anti-corrosion fluid it somehow stopped it charging?
Thursday I changed the oil so now we’ve done 1400 miles since hitting the road and then on Sunday I looked to see why the clutch was not disengaging properly. Mrs A was there pumping the clutch – the fluid was a like brown water so thought this might be a problem. Despite its looks there was no air in the system but I flushed it through. What I did find was the clutch cover was loose so tightening this gave us back some tension on the lever but the biggest contributor to fixing it was changing the clutch lever on the handlebar. The free play on the clutch is controlled by a screw that you wind in – this was too slack but the previous owner had plugged the end with epoxy so while I wait for the duck oil to penetrate I replaced the lever with a second hand item and job done.
The only remaining issue is the front brake which doesn’t work so good. Haven’t had time to check it over but suspect one or more pistons are seized and it is maybe only pushing against one side of the disc – if not then maybe the disc is warped…
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 