Moto Laverda recall

Tippie said:
After Laverda had done some years earlier.
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Ha ha. Touch?  :D

Actually, it was probably Meguro (later Kawasaki) who showed the British market how to do it in 1960 when they made their own version of the 500cc BSA A7 under licence. Main difference between the Meguro K Stamina and the A7 was that the Japanese bike was reliable and didn't leak oil. I suspect they were having a shot at BSA by calling their bike "Stamina", implying that BSA's version had none. I think they were a Japanese market bike only, with low production numbers. I've never seen one in the flesh.

In 1965 after the Kawasaki take-over of Meguro, the 500cc Stamina morphed into the Kawasaki W1 650, which was pretty much a copy of the BSA A10. It was likewise reliable and didn't leak oil, and it had decent electrics. I knew a bloke who bought one back in the day. He used to thrash the crap out of it and it just kept going. I think it was heavier and slower than the BSA A10, but the build quality was much better than BSA.
 
There's a book titled Where BSAs Dare! By Norman Vanhouse it's about 3 star twins that won the 1952 ISDT and the Maudes Trophy never been achieved before or since.
  It tells us how to treat your bike and still crack on and most importantly not to go home on a recover truck.
Regards Andy
 
Morning All - Woken up here in the UK with the joys of (forthcoming) spring and happy in the knowledge that having done a strip down (engine number 1200-1846), I am rolling on rollers and not sitting on my balls. It's a Slater's bike so I guess it would be near the front of the recall queue. I was a bit worried as the bike was in the affected list. Nice news for a relative Laverda L-plater like myself.
 
DavidH said:
In 1980 our 79 JOTA *6574* failed at over 160kph two up and loaded when overtaking a semi in northern Queensland - up near Tully in fact.
......
Eades / Stanco refused warranty
......
So from my experience, no warranty was provided by Stanco or the agents.
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In the modern context, that is shocking treatment by the company/importer/dealer.  Although I guess companies are still feigning ignorance of well known problems if they think they can get away with it.
You did well to retain the enthusiasm for the brand!  :D

I very much doubt any bikes still in service still have the ball bearings, they'd have generally blown up long ago methinks.  I wouldn't worry buying a 79 model anymore, other than a concern for the quality of the job when the bearings were replaced.  Many would have been done by shops not overly familiar with the brand.
 
Steve, depends on where in the world the bike lives.
In Spain I regularly found affected triples, just no importer or dealer since the 80s.
Some were laid up for a whole host of other reasons but some were still in use.
 
Grant said:
Steve, depends on where in the world the bike lives.
In Spain I regularly found affected triples, just no importer or dealer since the 80s.
Some were laid up for a whole host of other reasons but some were still in use.
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That's the case in many places I imagine.
Paul
 
I guess so, but I was trying to deal in facts.
I know that Slaters etc in the UK were very active, and I only have direct experience of my 15 years in Spain.
 
Ok, facts.

I've recently seen a triple for sale in France that was in the bad series. It hadn't been remedied.
I'm not certain that the French importer did anything about it.
And in view of the mileage put on most motorcycles in their useful life, I'm sure that there are still quite a few around.

I even had one that went through my grubby little hands that had been repaired by a reputable local dealer who used to engage Laverda in 24hr endurance racing. Except the center mains.

Paul
 
breganzane said:
I very much doubt any bikes still in service still have the ball bearings, they'd have generally blown up long ago methinks.
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just finished rebuilding a 1200 engine that had according to the owner around 160,000klms on ball bearing mains, speedo had been replaced at some stage
was of two minds if I should actually change the bearings out at all considering how far they lasted, very impressive
could not do it though so stripped the crank and changed the middle mains to rollers
 
That would be my Mirage that Red and a couple of other mentioned in their posts and yes adding the km's from the original speedo gives a total of 142,000km. This was my first Laverda bought  in '79 (Have now owed 5 in total - because they were so reliable) and very early on was fitted with 7C cams. The tacho spent a great amount of time well into the red zone.
Although I was aware of the problem with '79 models with caged ball mains I thought in ignorance that mine was safe as it was a '78 model.
It was sent to receive Red's attention for an oil leak due to a suspected crack in it's head.
I was absolutely stunned when he told and showed me the ball race mains.
 
Storm said:
The tacho spent a great amount of time well into the red zone.

I was absolutely stunned when he told and showed me the ball race mains.
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Maybe that helped preserve the bearings! Lots of oil supply, going so fast the balls had no chance of escape  :D
 
  (Have now owed 5 in total - because they were so reliable) and very early on was fitted with 7C cams. The tacho spent a great amount of time well into the red zone.
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We (Motodd) prepared a Jota for the 1979 Avon series in the Uk - it was one with the ball centre mains - as it was always used at very high RPM - this meant that the  Brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was really never encountered - this means that the pressure exerted on the pistons was hardly ever at its maximum - this Jota was sold for road use and, not sure exactly, did quite a few miles over a long period of time before the mains caved in. As with many people who hole a piston - they always say "I wasn't thrashing it" - usually cruising on a motorway at maximum BMEP - this will show up weaknesses in the fuel or ignition system more likely than a good caning. - Just my take - Phil
 
phil37 said:
We (Motodd) prepared a Jota for the 1979 Avon series in the Uk - it was one with the ball centre mains - as it was always used at very high RPM - this meant that the  Brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was really never encountered - this means that the pressure exerted on the pistons was hardly ever at its maximum
Phil
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So this means that BMEP is caused or reached when, Phil? At lower RPM, but how low and is it relatable to max torque or running at a constant RPM? So if the crank assembly is in constant phases of accel-decel, and never sitting in one (high?) range, that it doesn't endure this pressure?
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
So this means that BMEP is caused or reached when, Phil? At lower RPM, but how low and is it relatable to max torque or running at a constant RPM? So if the crank assembly is in constant phases of accel-decel, and never sitting in one (high?) range, that it doesn't endure this pressure?
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If you understand manifold pressure ..... which relates directly to BMEP ....... then you won't ever "lug" your motor .... ie give it lots of throttle at low rpm's. If you need a better explanation then I may have to go online and find an explanation as it is perfectly clear to me but very few understand what I'm saying.

I hope this helps ......

Jim
 
helicopterjim said:
If you understand manifold pressure ..... which relates directly to BMEP ....... then you won't ever "lug" your motor .... ie give it lots of throttle at low rpm's. If you need a better explanation then I may have to go online and find an explanation as it is perfectly clear to me but very few understand what I'm saying.

I hope this helps ......

Jim
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This helps; Rev the tits off it ......... she'll be right.
 
phil37 said:
this meant that the  Brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) was really never encountered - this means that the pressure exerted on the pistons was hardly ever at its maximum
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None of that makes much sense to me Phil. As I understand BMEP, it's a theoretical way of looking at engine power output. It's closely related to torque, but is independent of engine capacity.  It's not an actual pressure that occurs somewhere in the engine. It's just a useful yardstick for comparing the performance of different engines, regardless of engine size.

Any power output from idle to full bore at max revs can be related back to a theoretical BMEP. It's not something you 'encounter' at a particular throttle or rev setting.
To say that "BMEP was really never encountered" is like saying "torque was really never encountered".

Trying to understand your post, I guess you mean your engine was normally operated in a rev range that didn't coincide with maximum BMEP. Max BMEP (like torque) usually occurs at lower revs than max power. That makes a little more sense because it would be reasonable to assume that maximum bearing load occurs at maximum torque, not maximum power.

I suppose the worst thing for bearings (and pistons, rings, conrods, etc.) is to lug the engine at low revs. That's like hitting the top of the piston with a hammer every time the engine fires.
 
So I thought peak toque occurred at 4500 rpm and that's around where I usually ride at or was till I melted the inlet ring land off 2 pistons. Seems That's considered lugging it and I should be running my race engine, it has been upped to Corsa spec, mostly at 6k and up to avoid damaging it. What did surprise me was the compression reading from a test, it was producing 195psi.
 
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