Oil sight glass

russo011

russo011

Senior member
Location
Austria
Reading through the forum it seems that some people have added an oil sight glass to the right hand gear change cover.
According to the Laverda Paradies's book of words it is advised to drill a 3 to 4 mm pressure relief hole in the casing as per their photo.
It seems the photo is off of a 750 - not sure if this is really necessary for the 1000 due to the two much bigger holes in the casing cover that allows oil into this part anyway.
Anybody have any comments?
 

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Never needed anything other than the dipstick in all my years of ownership. And always plenty of oil in the selector covers to cope with the minimal moving parts in there.
 
russo011 said:
Cheers - just that I am so used to all the other bikes I've had that have a sight glass
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I have an sfc 750 style cover , with crinkley black finish,from Wagner, with a sight glass. I recall drilling that hole..Keith Nairn plugged it! The cover is most useful mainly for the ability to fill oil using the cover, rather than using the hard to get at dipstick one..
 
nick7 said:
I have an sfc 750 style cover , with crinkley black finish,from Wagner, with a sight glass. I recall drilling that hole..Keith Nairn plugged it! The cover is most useful mainly for the ability to fill oil using the cover, rather than using the hard to get at dipstick one..
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Thanks Nik, so if the 750 never needed the small hole, don't see any reason to drill into the inner 1000 cover.
 
The major engine breather hose is pretty close to that end of the case, I seem to remember Phil Todd talking about adding a breather to the rocker box on race engines. Fuzzy memory though. It's a bit of Nascar Tech involving crankcase pressure control that I think Red does as well. Helpful to reduce oil leaks as well.
 
Vince said:
The major engine breather hose is pretty close to that end of the case, I seem to remember Phil Todd talking about adding a breather to the rocker box on race engines. Fuzzy memory though. It's a bit of Nascar Tech involving crankcase pressure control that I think Red does as well. Helpful to reduce oil leaks as well.
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I routed my crankcase breather hose into a small aluminium drink flask rather than aiming it the rear wheelFB_IMG_1707923393786.jpg
 
With the sight glass on the RHS and the oil filling on the LHS (unless you have the filler cover with a sight glass), you have to walk all the way around the extremely long Laverda to check the level while adding oil.
 
nick7 said:
How does that work..cant be sealed or woukd presumably pressurise? I have aslo tried to aim the breather away from the rear tyre...
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There's a gap between the hose and the inside diameter of the container inlet
 

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nick7 said:
Ah...doesnt just blow oil out then?
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Nope - the pipe runs about 50mm into the container.
Seen photos where the pipe is just run vertically upwards and fitted with a small K&N filter on top. Didn't like the look of that and as I had the container knocking around thought this was a better solution.
 
Paul Marx said:
If your breather is spewing oil on the rear tyre, Coke cans is the last thing you have to worry about.
Paul
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Possibly, but its a common issue even on engines in good condition when revved ( not for those of sedate disposition plodding about on their points fired 750😉)...there have been posts by Phil Todd and Red on that subject.Phil described variously using a morini baffle thing in the breather, and creating a breather from the rocker cover I think? Red was designing a different breather, I seem to recall. I wonder if this was an issue for the Jota racers back in the day? I first came across the problem 20 years ago when revving my newly bought Jota...and for sure though shiny it was a smigeon away from self destruction internally, worn bores , rings etc causing blow by.
 
nick7 said:
Possibly, but its a common issue even on engines in good condition when revved ( not for those of sedate disposition plodding about on their points fired 750😉)...there have been posts by Phil Todd and Red on that subject.Phil described variously using a morini baffle thing in the breather, and creating a breather from the rocker cover I think? Red was designing a different breather, I seem to recall. I wonder if this was an issue for the Jota racers back in the day? I first came across the problem 20 years ago when revving my newly bought Jota...and for sure though shiny it was a smigeon away from self destruction internally, worn bores , rings etc causing blow by.
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There's a world between a bike used on the track and on the road. For a start, the regulations aren't the same.
Paul
 
nick7 said:
Possibly, but its a common issue even on engines in good condition when revved ( not for those of sedate disposition plodding about on their points fired 750😉)...there have been posts by Phil Todd and Red on that subject.Phil described variously using a morini baffle thing in the breather, and creating a breather from the rocker cover I think? Red was designing a different breather, I seem to recall. I wonder if this was an issue for the Jota racers back in the day? I first came across the problem 20 years ago when revving my newly bought Jota...and for sure though shiny it was a smigeon away from self destruction internally, worn bores , rings etc causing blow by.
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I decided to design a 2nd breather after monitoring the crankcase pressure on a 180 degree triple on my test bench, I set up a 0-10psi transducer installed in the dip stick hole and ran the engine
Having been involved in drag racing in the past where they use Vacuum pumps to scavenge the crankcase cavity to gain horsepower I was interested to see what was going on

You could watch the gauge on the software go crazy, up to 6 psi fluctuation depending on revs whereas do the same on a 120 and the needle barely moved
Is caused by those 2 pistons going up/down and the poor old middle piston trying to keep up so I machined up and installed a 2nd breather bolted to where the Starter motor should be and which has a Kawasaki 125cc 2 stroke Reed valve inside of it
Works really well

I doubt that anyone else has ever taken the time to set up and record the crank case pressure on a Laverda triple
Shit you do when trying to find power out of these old clunkers
 
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