750 Starter drive

Eurocycleguy

Hero member
Location
Chicagoland-USA
A topic that has been discussed before but I do not see the information I am looking for.
How much grease do I put into a drive?
Can I put in too much grease, that it will slip instead of engage?
According to the Green book this is part of regular maintenance at every 12K miles.  Can this be done without disassembling the drive? So ideally, every 12K miles  the drive was just removed from the crank and repacked or cleaned out (solvent bath) and repacked and returned to the crank.  No disassembly was required??
Or was it just understood that everyone will have to modify their drive to have the ability to open it up for cleaning and re-greasing every 12K miles and it was never written up about the required modification in maintenance sections.
Thanks for clearing this up for me.
Larry
 
You mean the starter clutch? The thing on the end of the crank? You don't need to pull the clutch itself apart, which is riveted together. I've never used grease in mine (lost count at 250,000km, no speedo since 1977 when it read 63,000 miles - 100,000km). It does require maintenance, usually pull it off (get yourself a puller - DON'T forget, LEFT HAND THREAD on RH crank end!!), remove the rollers, the little pistons and the springs that sit inside the pins, which are usual in pieces. Clean it all up, fit new springs and refit. I do mine when I hear it start to rattle at idle - maybe the grease thing works but I've never tried it, so can't comment.

If the pistons are stuck fast it is possible to ascertain the exact angle (i made a little metal template and scored lines) , mill a flat for the drill to centre on and then drill from outiside into the bore. Then it's fixed forever, cos you just poke out the stuck pins with a prod.
 
I used to regularly grease mine and it would slip after wet weather riding (read tropical) and it was aways full of grunge. I have run it compeltely dry for ages now and as PB2 says just strip and clean it occasionally, but it holds ten times longer thar it used to. Most people go for a light greasing.
 
Just make sure the back plate of the starter clutch is FLAT and fastened tight, not loose as it causes the dogs to rattle and slip damaging the crank spline which can be smoothed with a sharp file. Either Tac Weld or drill and tap the back plate on with bolts to ensure it's fastened tight. - Light Moly Grease works great.

Common issue with all Breganzie models. The original rivets are prone to fail.

New Roller Dogs and Springs can be ordered from Wolfgang.

 
1) Pack the thing with plenty of grease when the need to take it off occurs or when rollers start not gripping. Excess grease will centrifuge off on the first push on the starter button.

2) Late freewheels were drilled on the outside corresponding to the 6 plunger locations. Makes maintenance easy, just squirt some 3 into 1 down the drillings from time to time.

Paul
 
Right and early ones only had 3 rollers ('68 into '69 GT) rather than the 6

Larry, Laverda SF's  (Ron) reply is salient as the rollers can cock and start to gouge the plate and the softer steel of the pulley. The plate helps keep them rolling instead of cocking.

I've always used some grease in the bore where the spring and plunger reside and renew the springs annually.

 
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