Well back to the perennial sprag issue this week, this is a bit tiresome when there is so much to do. So the Zane sprag was fitted but on Atlas #2 it made a ‘whizzing’ sound and during the week it was clear that it wasn’t necessarily engaging all the time. I put a post out onto the Laverdaforum and found that the starter on the Atlas is the same as the 650 except that the gear on the end has 13 and not 14 teeth. Andy Bartlett found the same whizzing noise when he fitted a Zane sprag and said it sounded like the gears weren’t meshing properly – correct and worse the gear train for the Zane is slightly bigger in overall diameter so it’s all being squeezed together which is why it felt like it was jamming (because it was…)!
I looked through my box of scrap standard sprags and ring gears and found a combination that works – interestingly the uber expensive Zimmerman sprag doesn’t but an old standard unit does. Of course it works but it is on borrowed time. There are two plans:
- See if I can buy a Zane 13 tooth gear for my Atlas starter motor.
- See if I can reclaim the ring gears by getting them hard chromed. They are only down by .5mm so maybe a layer of chrome will get them back to 50mm?
Having got Atlas #2 back running I turned my attention to Atlas #1 which hasn’t been looked at since failing on the Welsh rally last May. It was still covered in road filth and oil so I set to it with some paraffin and it’s starting to come back. As you can see however the road salt has certainly taken its toll on the rear brake carrier – that’s a chunk of alloy that just peeled away!!!
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 