Happy New Year! Damn I just checked the blog and this is the first post since November!!! Well the loctite fixed the footpeg, the RGS footrest hanger is back in a box somewhere and Mrs A has got over her Awards Evening big night out so into 2024…
It’s just been so damned grey and wet for months! It’s not been particularly cold and the Jota has been covered in ACF50 – could go for a ride. Stuff however has got in the way along with a broken spring and plunger in the sprag.
It only took a couple of laboured cold starts for me to twig the sprag needed repair. Repairing the sprag was straightforward – springs from Motalia (the only Laverda parts seller left in the UK?) and a used plunger from a bag of sprag odds and sods. Assembly was straightforward aside from the need to hold the alternator to tighten the crank nut. I tried to find an appropriate peg spanner but settled on an HGV oil filter strap. Worked a treat!
While I had the alternator cover off I took the opportunity to hunt down the oil leak behind the cylinder barrel. As I suspected the gasket behind the starter motor wasn’t holding and with no easy (or cheap) way to get a new gasket in the UK I resorted to silicone… It seems to be working.
Time for oil. I’d run a cycle of the Halfords 20/50 Classic in an attempt to sort out the oil consumption – idea being to ‘rough up the rings’ for improved seal. Putting this stupidity to one side what I noticed was how bad the engine oil smelt! It reminded me of years ago when a mechanic smelt my dismantled A65 and guessed I’d run it on Castrol GTX because of the smell! So think this is the last time I’ll use Halfords oil which isn’t noticeably cheaper than Morris or Silkolene. However for the first time ever I’m going fully synthetic! A bit of research came up with fully synth’ 20/50 at a better price than quality mineral oil. Decided to give this a go to see if oil consumption will go down + in the summer maybe fully synth’ will help the engine stay cooler (not something I can test in February…)?
Before getting going I was visited by Andy Bartlett and his compression tester. Cylinder 1 and 2 gave 180 psi cold but #3 delivered a disappointing 165! I was counselled not to arrange head removal before trying a ‘warm’ test and hey ho they all hit 180 second time round (although #3 could still be described as ‘lazy’). #3 has a ‘bruised’ piston according to the SLS which explains the variance (which is within the 10% variance across the cylinders rule). However can’t lie – I don’t like it. Still it’s only £30 for a compression tester so I’ll get one of these and do periodic checks.
Finally having checked out the plug caps for resistance Andy also noticed the offside horn rattled. I found another in another odds and sods box – couldn’t be bothered to see if it works, it just doesn’t rattle!
First proper ride was for coffee at the Black Dog cafe, Devizes. The wet weather meant many of the back roads are flooded so it had to be mainly dual carriageway and motorway but I did manage to ride past the standing stones in Avebury.
Despite intermittent heavy rain it was great to be back on the Jota with the engine pushing me forward with that glorious growl. You could see people wondering why this classic bike was out in the shitty weather but it’s covered in ACF50 so what the hell! A quick chat with another ‘baby boomer’ about his GSXR and how he wished he’d bought an RGS before it was time to turn round and head for home. Must do that more regularly.
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 