rocketonarail
Hero member
- Location
- Gloucestershire,England
Because of their basic simplicity Laverdas lend themselves nicely to the attentions of the home mechanic and I guess a fair number of us take advantage of this.Most of us would think of ourselves as decent mechanics,well versed in the foibles of our particular machine and with a few tricks up our sleeves the so-called experts haven`t managed to fathom out yet.
However.......
as the years and miles go by there is always the possibility of the odd balls-up occuring,(afterall ,no-ones perfect).
One I`m going to admit to now concerns triple cam block bearings.
This was after 5 years/50,000 miles of ownership so there is no excuse but when I lifted the cam cover for a valve clearance check I found (to my horror) that at the last check (which involved a shim change obviously) I had failed to check that the No 3 cylinder exhaust cam block was seated squarely in it`s grooves,and was now staring back at me in this cock-eyed state.Averting my gaze to stare out of the window for a few seconds and then looking back again didn`t make any difference-it was still there.
Luckily despite having spent the last 6000 miles in this state damage wasn`t too bad and ten minutes with a couple of needle files reduced the visible damage by about 80%,and the block still clicked back into place and remained secure before being tightened down,which is the main thing I suppose,but I was still a little bit miffed(to put it mildly) that my previously pristine cylinder head had been sullied in this way,by my own lack of care and attention.
Steve Winterton once remarked in an interview that approx. half the heads he had seen had been damaged in this way,and even when Laverda increased the size of the cuttaways so even the most mechanically inept (cough) couldn`t fail to notice them,even then he still came across instances of damage.
I guess the lesson here is to take your time,don`t rush things and double check everything you do (even if you are working by torchlight in an unlit shed barely bigger than the bike itself-see,all these years later and still trying to make excuses).
Has anyone else had a similar `moment` which they`re prepared to admit to/managed to fix/kept quiet about and hoped no-one noticed ?
However.......
as the years and miles go by there is always the possibility of the odd balls-up occuring,(afterall ,no-ones perfect).
One I`m going to admit to now concerns triple cam block bearings.
This was after 5 years/50,000 miles of ownership so there is no excuse but when I lifted the cam cover for a valve clearance check I found (to my horror) that at the last check (which involved a shim change obviously) I had failed to check that the No 3 cylinder exhaust cam block was seated squarely in it`s grooves,and was now staring back at me in this cock-eyed state.Averting my gaze to stare out of the window for a few seconds and then looking back again didn`t make any difference-it was still there.
Luckily despite having spent the last 6000 miles in this state damage wasn`t too bad and ten minutes with a couple of needle files reduced the visible damage by about 80%,and the block still clicked back into place and remained secure before being tightened down,which is the main thing I suppose,but I was still a little bit miffed(to put it mildly) that my previously pristine cylinder head had been sullied in this way,by my own lack of care and attention.
Steve Winterton once remarked in an interview that approx. half the heads he had seen had been damaged in this way,and even when Laverda increased the size of the cuttaways so even the most mechanically inept (cough) couldn`t fail to notice them,even then he still came across instances of damage.
I guess the lesson here is to take your time,don`t rush things and double check everything you do (even if you are working by torchlight in an unlit shed barely bigger than the bike itself-see,all these years later and still trying to make excuses).
Has anyone else had a similar `moment` which they`re prepared to admit to/managed to fix/kept quiet about and hoped no-one noticed ?
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