W/E 3rd July 2016

This weekend was the National Rally – full report in the Trips section.

It was a hectic weekend because right up ’til Friday night I wasn’t sure if the Atlas was going to be ready – I even fired up the 100 just in case.

I wrestled to replace both gearchange springs without having to remove the clutch. Posts were placed onto the LaverdaForum and emails sent to fellow Atlas owners.

I was surprised to find the upper, heavier spring had broken but consulting with other owners tells me that this is common – to the point that it’s worth putting a spare in the tank bag when touring. The good news is that the spring is not unique to the Atlas – same spring fits onto the triples, SF and 500’s…so no need to get OCT to send it just a call to Richard in Bromyard and it was winging its way to me.

A useful tip I got back was to shave a bit off the edge of the washer that holds the heavier, upper scissor spring. By doing this you can get the spring past the clutch drum. My problem however was that both the heavier upper spring and light lower spring were broken.

I spent a complete evening trying to fit the lower spring without removing the clutch drum and finally walked away before things started to get broken!

So I had to remove the clutch…I knew it required making up a tool out of a clutch plate but I just didn’t fancy the job – it’s weird how some times you just deskill yourself huh? Anyways I had a couple of attempts.

First off I just tried to get the clutch drum locked by putting the plate in at an angle attached to a set of mole grips – nope this just resulted in a bent plate!!! So I bit the bullet and drilled two holes, find a piece of metal to use as a handle and bolted this to the plate. What surprised me was how soft the metal clutch plate is.

Locking washers flattened the left hand thread nut came off easily and it was plain sailing from then on.

Road test showed the gearbox worked but the down changes felt stiff. The clutch was also a bit noisy – both things I put down to new stronger springs and having disturbed the plates…I guessed it would all settle down.

Nick 🙂