W/E 19th May 2020

A lick of black paint and we’ll be ready to go!

The Atlas project is moving forward after a ‘difficult’ period 🙂

The cams were made to spin more freely because I did the unimaginable for a bloke and decided to look at a manual! There isn’t an Atlas workshop manual available on-line but there is a 500 one . The manual shows that it is only the black 9mm studs (nuts facing inside the motor) that are tightened to 28 ft Ilbs – the remaining nuts are just done up ‘tight with a hand spanner. I checked this understanding with Andy Bartlett who races 500’s and bingo free cams! All the marks were lined up and Mrs A lent a hand to connect up the cam-chains.

Atlas #1 and #3 are now ‘built’ but before going back in the frames need black paint (especially Atlas #1) and the frame on Atlas #3 needs the swinging arm pivot unseizing.

A new 1 ton press arrived from Germany so it was time to see if I could get the bearing inner races off the cush drive shaft (the bearings had collapsed with the inners left on the shaft and the outers in the cush housing). Of course I didn’t bolt the press to the bench and had a go pressing with my foot on the back of the unit to try and steady it. Not a chance (in truth I think the press even if fitted to a bench isn’t heavy enough) but the bearings did start to move (maybe half a mm). It was just enough to get a cold chisel into the back of the lower bearing and with a 14mm socket acting as a spacer and bit of hammering in a vice saw it all come apart!

The outer bearing has spun in the cush housing so needed packing. In the past I’ve done this with Loctite but as I’d had some shim delivered this was cut to shape. I must say I prefer the mechanical as opposed to chemical solution. I’m yet to finish the cush because the inboard bearing is a good fit so it was put in the freezer to assist with its installation and I got distracted…

And so the second task assigned to the new press ended up with a 14mm socket, vice and big hammer… The lower suspension pivot was worn (this bearing is worn on all my Atlas’s so it’s a common issue [even if you don’t know it yet]) so the old one needed ‘pressing’ out and a replacement pressed in. Once the bush had started to shift so that I could flatten it a bit extraction was straightforward. Pressing in the new bush with the 14mm socket and tightening the vice was sweet.

I checked the markings on the plain bush and was surprised to see that it is a standard bearing (PAP 2025 P10) that can be bought for £1 from a bearing factor! I shall be taking serial numbers of all these for the future – it’s good to know that I won’t have to buy genuine Laverda parts in the future.

So this week ends on a high 🙂 The vice turned out to be a waste of money in one sense however waiting for it to arrive made me slow down and think – in that sense it was £55 well spent! Similarly I got the shim in for the camshafts but it’s come in handy for the cush drive so another result.

Atlas #3 frame is having penetrating oil squirted into the seized swinging arm. I hope to have this sorted next time we ‘speak’.

Nick 🙂