What did you do to or for or with your Laverda today?

Great idea, pulling and refitting that spring gets old fast. The last ride I did still had issues getting 1st gear at traffic lights for the way up to Walcha but it suddenly came good heading back. No idea why other than the spring maybe stopped blocking its movements. Just a guess though.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Quick job to fabricate a selector eccentric screw adjusting kit - can undo the locknut without removing any of the assembly. Alu plate allows me to ref the 'before' and 'after' angle of the slot of the eccentric screw and also makes holding it in pos while tightening the locknut a breeze.

Getting good shifting has been a lot trickier on the Q than on previous Lavs I've done it on. VERY fine change to get good from bad.
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Looks like a bicycle cone spanned, prior to the modification
 
chrisk said:
Looks like a bicycle cone spanned, prior to the modification
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Not a cone spanner, Chris. Not sure what it's off - was sitting on my bench and it measured 13mm so bingo! Was too short, hence the extender.

Vince, I sorted mine not selecting 1st - that's now solid, but still having that annoying habit you had of not selecting 3rd from 2nd so that when you release the clutch you're still in 2nd. Fukn annoying - worked about 40% of the time. I didn't want to overcompensate with the last adjustment so will tweak it just that tiny bit more - rest of the gearbox is a gem.

Leaning the bike safely so I can remove the selector cover with oil still in the motor is tricky and then doesn't allow you to use the rear wheel to rock back and forth when testing. I used a socket and bar on the crank with the plugs removed.
 
I have changed the hydraulic clutch slave/gearbox sprocket cover, (1200 triple) many, many times in the last two years as I have worked on perfecting the repair for cracked covers, and even VERY BADLY previously repaired ones as well, which I am very pleased to say has now been copied by certain persons of professional UK Laverda ilk, you CANNOT get better flatterring than that! so consequently I have been adjusting the wretched eccentric cam a lot, as in huge amounts, I have learned that most of the problems come from weak springs (the jews harp one, on its back legs open) I have not bought a new spring from anywhere that was good enough, i.e strong enough, but I salvaged one from a wrecked motor six months ago and was staggerred at how strong it was, this changed the whole game and I was good to go in no time at all. They might not yet have broken, but if they are weekened, how would you know until you compare with what is probably a factory item of low mileage.
CLEM
 
So the question I have is how do you make a spring stronger but still have the same dimensions, is it a metallurgy thing? I did notice I think that these springs can be left-handed or right-handed. Does that make a difference in how they work in their position in the gadget? Chris P has a spring maker with a shop a couple of doors down from him. He has made me some 1st gear Husky Automatic springs, std one brack a lot, but his didn't. Might be worth a chat.
 
julian said:
Interesting to note,
So, are you saying that a stronger spring helps?
Are there any side effects?
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I've never broken one in 50 years of Laverda ownership. So I still have factory springs, which must mean they are the go if they can be found.

What i did discover is that if the 'boss' that holds the spring open is too wide it allows play between the eccentric screw and the spring. I ground a small groove in my eccentric screw that the spring now sits in (also helps keep the legs of the spring in place) and eliminates any play. The play effects where the 'hooks' on the selector fork come to rest relative to the pegs in the cylinder - and on mine, the hook has not been returning far enough to hook over the 2nd-3rd gear peg. In some cases it seems necessary to actually remove metal from the eccentric screw to create more travel for the forks. Maybe it's wear over the decades that has created this problem?
 
I have ground a scrap off the flats that stop travel against the eccentric screw for the same effect, much easier than trying to grind off a circle evenly. That bike would either change up, or down, but never both, without jiggling the lever with your heel between changes. Taking about half a mm off each flat fixed it, it just couldn't get the selector plate to move quite far enough. The eccentric adjustments are very fine.
 
Julian wrote,
"Interesting to note,
So, are you saying that a stronger spring helps?
Are there any side effects?"

not realy stronger springs Julian but "correct" ones, I have broken two over 5 decades, but I have plenty of unbroken ones that I now know to be too weak, one of them even has thinner wire gauge!, no side effects as I can determine, but if you have the bike on the ramp and are changing gears using your hand it is noticably "harder" to do so, on the bike, you dont notice this with foot operation, the correct spring strength cannot be that hard to achieve, (pattern parts syndrome again!) if only a NOS still in the packet spring could be found, I wonder if the 750 spring is the same as 180 triples, very likley is , not sure of the 120's as they have a differring configeration. (that might answer the left and right handed thing that have never occurred to me).
CLEM
 
Interesting!
I've broken, in use, more than half a dozen over the years.
In my experience: gearchanges begin to get sloppy then, within a few weeks, the spring will fail. Always as per attached photgraph.
I, now, check the return spring at service intervals by pushing the lever to its travel limit and flicking my finger off it.
If it fails to snap back, smartly, I replace the spring. This regime has meant no "in-flight" failures, but I still carry a spare, with me.
Old habits die hard!
Never had any that don't fit. Last lot I bought were courtesy of Laverdamania.

Gear lever return spring.jpg
 
piranha-bro2 said:
I've never broken one in 50 years of Laverda ownership. So I still have factory springs, which must mean they are the go if they can be found.

What i did discover is that if the 'boss' that holds the spring open is too wide it allows play between the eccentric screw and the spring. I ground a small groove in my eccentric screw that the spring now sits in (also helps keep the legs of the spring in place) and eliminates any play. The play effects where the 'hooks' on the selector fork come to rest relative to the pegs in the cylinder - and on mine, the hook has not been returning far enough to hook over the 2nd-3rd gear peg. In some cases it seems necessary to actually remove metal from the eccentric screw to create more travel for the forks. Maybe it's wear over the decades that has created this problem?
Click to expand...
I've broken 3 or 4 factory springs.
Paul
 
Started work on the SFC. A long story but intake valve play is increasing by 0.2 mm every 50 km. This is a freshly rebuilt engine.
The engine builder changed the company doing the hard chrome on the rockers with this engine apparently. We'll see.
I'm always impressed by how purposeful these bikes are. A frame with a wheel at each end and an engine.
Bike will very likely be for sale when I've finished. I've no use for it.
Paul
1.jpg
2.jpg
 
I always have the two springs for the gearchange in my toolbox, once the small one behind the clutch (120 deg) broke in the italian alps and a Fiat garage helped me with some tools. Less than 2 hours later I could go on….
 
Paul Marx said:
Started work on the SFC. A long story but intake valve play is increasing by 0.2 mm every 50 km. This is a freshly rebuilt engine.
The engine builder changed the company doing the hard chrome on the rockers with this engine apparently. We'll see.
I'm always impressed by how purposeful these bikes are. A frame with a wheel at each end and an engine.
Bike will very likely be for sale when I've finished. I've no use for it.
Paul
View attachment 83155
View attachment 83156
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If the valve tips are concaving or the tappet adjusters flaring then you'd have to assume it's either cam or rockers wearing ... most likely both but the latter at rocker-to-base-circle position. But why would it only affect intake valves?
 
piranha-bro2 said:
If the valve tips are concaving or the tappet adjusters flaring then you'd have to assume it's either cam or rockers wearing ... most likely both but the latter at rocker-to-base-circle position. But why would it only affect intake valves?
Click to expand...
I'll have a look, but all the gear is new with at the most two hours running.
Paul
 
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