This bloody bike. 1976 3CE

I totally agree with the comments above and you can rebuild the carbs yourself which will at least eliminate one source of your problems. Then move onto the ignition system if still needed. Have you tested the coils or replaced the wiring to them? Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and most shops won’t take the time to do this, so do all you can yourself.
 
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The previous owner of this bike should be ashamed of himself.
Advertised as 34mm carbs it has PHF32’s in it and they are not bored out. The slides are badly scored.
- Jota pistons and cams………. Well Jota cams don’t have A11 stamped on them as far as I know. These cam’s do.
The bores and pistons are scored and it’s being bored and honed with new +1 pistons and rings. The exhaust valves wobble inside the guides as the stems are so badly worn. The engine is full of a black gritty paste.
Wolfgang is sending $1100 worth of parts I’ve bought from him. There will be at least £1000 labour fee and I’ve spent £2K in parts so far including all the electrics.

“In good condition, ready to get on and ride. Goes really well. Time for someone else to enjoy” said the advert. If it had said “in need of a full rebuild” I wouldn’t have entertained it.
 

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Robin Webster said:
The previous owner of this bike should be ashamed of himself.
...................................
“In good condition, ready to get on and ride. Goes really well. Time for someone else to enjoy” said the advert. If it had said “in need of a full rebuild” I wouldn’t have entertained it.
Click to expand...
You are assuming that the previous owner knew, Robin.
I've seen it happen too many times.
Buyers repeat what their seller told them, when they come to sell on.

My favourite was the American advertising an "Original 1974 SFC750 for $175,000.... Only 2,340 miles, from new.... Still on its original tyres"
It had Pirelli Phantoms on it.
Pirelli only started producing Phantoms in 1977.
I asked him if Doctor Who had delivered the tyres.
Unsurprisingly, I didn't get a reply.
 
Robin Webster said:
The previous owner of this bike should be ashamed of himself.
Advertised as 34mm carbs it has PHF32’s in it and they are not bored out. The slides are badly scored.
- Jota pistons and cams………. Well Jota cams don’t have A11 stamped on them as far as I know. These cam’s do.
The bores and pistons are scored and it’s being bored and honed with new +1 pistons and rings. The exhaust valves wobble inside the guides as the stems are so badly worn. The engine is full of a black gritty paste.
Wolfgang is sending $1100 worth of parts I’ve bought from him. There will be at least £1000 labour fee and I’ve spent £2K in parts so far including all the electrics.

“In good condition, ready to get on and ride. Goes really well. Time for someone else to enjoy” said the advert. If it had said “in need of a full rebuild” I wouldn’t have entertained it.
Click to expand...
Robin,
The 1st picture appears clearly to show an extra mounting hole for the cam wheel? May be the cams have been re profiled to 4C spec also?
Andy
 
Robin, I tend to agree with Andy. It’s hard to make a proper judgement from your photos but those lobes don’t look like A11’s. A few more pics might help. I have a set of A11 cams in a Mirage that were reprofiled with 7/c lobes. The bike would not run properly. The cams had been reworked by Phil Joy. Check to see if there are any inscriptions on the sides of the cam lobes, this may give a clue if there has been any rework. When I discussed with Phil, he made it very clear to ignore the scribe marks on the sprockets and dial the cams in at maximum valve lift. As a separate observation, those sprocket teeth look very worn but again it might just be the photo.
 
Hi Robin ........... I see you`ve ordered lots of expensive parts to be fitted by the shop which currently has the bike .......... and the labour charge is likely to be in the region of £1000 ........ this obviously in addition to the cost of the parts that are on their way , and the £2000 cost of the parts you have bought and fitted previously .

Does the shop who is going to fit all these parts have previous experience of working on Laverda triples ?

They may well be competent , and capable ......... but do they know the triples ?

I`m just thinking that , taking into account all the expense involved in ordering these parts , and that this is going to be the final kill or cure effort to get things working properly , by the sound of it .............. then would it be better to entrust the parts ( and the work ) , to one of the recognised Laverda specialists ........ there are two or three still left , I believe ..........

Maybe the shop you have entrusted the work to is indeed one of these .............. even if the shop isn`t , they may still do an excellent job ..... maybe .......

But to be absolutely sure , it may be worth ensuring this work is undertaken by one of the well known ( on this forum ) Laverda specialists ....... even if it does involve a longer wait , and even a little more expense .

If this really is going to be the final effort to put things right , then you may as well take that extra step to ensure things are done properly .
 
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Unfortunately there are dishonest sellers out there, which happened to me when I bought my 750 SF2, so I can sympathize. All the things you've found wrong explain why the bike was running so poorly. Paddy Ducati might have correct and rebuilt carbs.
Hopefully the machinist/engine builder you choose is competent and will follow the specs of the Green Book when doing the work. In view of what you've found so far, it would probably be a good idea to examine the bottom end.
Best of luck!
 
The imbasile I bought my bike off told me the engine was just rebuilt, by said Imbasile. He had a scrapbook of receipts that I glanced through. One month later, it started blowing smoke. I then checked his receipts. Head rebuild, $35. That ended up being the replacements of the Inlet valve seals only. Seems he avoided spending the $1000 on new guides and valves I ended up actually spending.
 
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Off on a tangent. Mate in Brisbane with a workshop had a guy on a Kawa 900 stop on the road out the front, smoking badly from the exhaust. Geoff went out and asked him what the problem was, it turned out that the guy was on the way home from picking it up from a full engine rebuild at the main Kawa dealer. Geoff rang his mate the dealer who got Geoff to strip it and report back. It turned out that the mechanic who did the job had taken all the receipted new pistons etc and used them in his Kawa 9 race bike, and just did a hone and bodge on the customers bike. There were no unfair dismissal rules back then.
 
It`s not always previous owners or dealers who can instigate problems ...........

Nothing to do with us ........ but when BSA-Triumph had a number of T150 blow-ups whilst testing at MIRA , they found potentially similarly afflicted triples had already been despatched to the USA .

They sent a couple of engineers out to America to carry out checks on engines with numbers within this batch ..........


This is what they found on just one Trident , which had been sat in a Los Angeles dealership showroom , awaiting it`s first owner .........

swarf in carburettors , and jet holders loose
corroded rocker box oil feed pipe
oil pressure relief valve not square in it`s threaded seat
4 th gear pinion not seated squarely on shaft
all pistons seized in bores ... ( their words .......... presumably showing signs , rather than seized solid ! ) .......
loose alloy , from machining of timing wheel spindle
alternator rotor nut threads out of true
layshaft 3 rd gear and selector fork blued
layshaft 2 nd gear not meshing correctly
cam timing not at optimum settings


Other things they discovered ( generally )

oil pump gasket holes not punched through , causing blockage in the oil circulation
sludge in crankcases , which they thought may have been sand left over from the casting process
primary drive sprockets out of line , causing possible chain breakages and crankshaft damage ..... ( maybe this was what happened at MIRA )
primary drive sprocket and shock absorber unit teeth out of line ............. subsequently found to be caused by too many being mounted in a stack during the machining process ............. ( presumably to save time ) .........

It was thought the relatively complex triple ( put together at BSA ) was unpopular with factory staff , who were more accustomed to the straight forward twin ...........

Aren`t you glad you chose a Laverda ? ......... :) ..............
 
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rocketonarail said:
It`s not always previous owners or dealers who can instigate problems ...........

Nothing to do with us ........ but when BSA-Triumph had a number of T150 blow-ups whilst testing at MIRA , they found potentially similarly afflicted triples had already been despatched to the USA .

They sent a couple of engineers out to America to carry out checks on engines with numbers within this batch ..........


This is what they found on just one Trident , which had been sat in a Los Angeles dealership showroom , awaiting it`s first owner .........

swarf in carburettors , and jet holders loose
corroded rocker box oil feed pipe
oil pressure relief valve not square in it`s threaded seat
4 th gear pinion not seated squarely on shaft
all pistons seized in bores ... ( their words .......... presumably showing signs , rather than seized solid ! ) .......
loose alloy , from machining of timing wheel spindle
alternator rotor nut threads out of true
layshaft 3 rd gear and selector fork blued
layshaft 2 nd gear not meshing correctly
cam timing not at optimum settings


Other things they discovered ( generally )

oil pump gasket holes not punched through , causing blockage in the oil circulation
sludge in crankcases , which they thought may have been sand left over from the casting process
primary drive sprockets out of line , causing possible chain breakages and crankshaft damage ..... ( maybe this was what happened at MIRA )
primary drive sprocket and shock absorber unit teeth out of line ............. subsequently found to be caused by too many being mounted in a stack during the machining process ............. ( presumably to save time ) .........

It was thought the relatively complex triple ( put together at BSA ) was unpopular with factory staff , who were more accustomed to the straight forward twin ...........

Aren`t you glad you chose a Laverda ? ......... :) ..............
Click to expand...
I was on holiday with a guy who was a crank grinder at Norton Wolverhampton , I quizzed him on the process and he replied ..
“ ..it was just a job weren’t it?” Didn’t give a shit!
 
The T150 tale sounds very similar to some warranty jobs on the crap AMF American iron I had to work on beside Laverdas at Stanco. Some had to have a complete engine swap they were so bad, tons of casting sand inside etc.
 
The Sock said:
You are assuming that the previous owner knew, Robin.
I've seen it happen too many times.
Buyers repeat what their seller told them, when they come to sell on.

I’m trying to bite my lip, not write the wrong thing. This is not an attack on you Sock.
BUT, I bought the bike from someone well known to the Laverda community. Someone who's business was selling motorcycles professionally before they retired, someone who makes an income now selling Laverda parts.
They should be well versed in what can and cannot be claimed in an advert.
I felt happy buying from him because everyone knows him and dare I say trusts him.
He’d ridden the bike a lot, so should know how it went. But it then sat for a decade. The electrics degrade and corrode. Sure it started on the drive but once under load the ignition broke down. My engineer said the cams were badly timed. Maybe someone in its past has given it an amateur tune up but in the eyes of the Law, ignorance is no defence. Sure the electrics caused many of the issues I’m having with it. But then so have the badly set up cams - that would have been evident when the owner rode it. The operating mechanism of the carbs is twisted. That hasn’t happened whilst it sat in a garage - the symptoms must have been there whilst it was last ridden The sticky grinding paste in the inlet tracts did not get in there whilst it sat stationary. The loose rattlely pistons and valve didn’t happen whilst it sat still in the garage. All that would be evident during the ride he took it on - surely it smoked and consumed oil at a great rate. Nuts and bolts lose all over the bike, sprocket, forks and more, only happen if it’s been taken apart and not properly assembled or it’s been thrashed to Italy and back and not maintained. “Properly maintained as it should” said the advert.
“Come and pay for it and collect it. No messing about, I don’t need that” is a dealer putting pressure on a customer to go through with a purchase when any contact has only been via the net. Like I said I thought I could trust him.

Hopefully these nine pages will make his next purchaser be more cautious than I. Buyer Beware..

Thing is there are a dozen or so bikes sitting in his garage waiting to be sold as his pension. Who will be his next customer? You? Anyone? If so, buy cheap.

I’ve told a bit about my life on here, not a lot. But working for a motorcycle magazine in the 1980’s I ended up under a car through no fault of my own. The court case took from 1984 to 1995 and my solicitors fee was £60K.
I broke my right ankle which was missed by the hospital and set badly and it has given me pain for 41 years.
The top of my thigh bone went through my pelvis destroying my left hip. I had four replacement hips.
My pelvis broke in four places and I separated my pubic bone.
My L4 vertebra was crushed and I woke after a month in ICU to be told I was paralysed for life and I couldn’t walk or manage my bowels or bladder. No sexual function. My highly Catholic mother in law to be pressured my fiancé to abort our baby whilst I lay in hospital for six months. She then got my girlfriend to leave me as I would never make mother in law a grand mother!
Two and a half years in a wheel chair I got Parathesia - electric shocks down my right leg that meant the signals were starting to get through. I started to walk and got my first left hip at 27 and my car racing licence at 32. I raced professionally at international level for 18 years. At 52 I decided it was time to race a Laverda 500. Someone in this community called me a CAR RACING WANKER behind my back. I won the club new comer of the year, novice champion and second in F2 BEARs. Won F3 BEARs in 2015. Sorry I wasn’t as quick as Austen Kear but I tried bloody hard given I was registered disabled.
I’ve had 16 operations including having my spine fused which stopped me racing the ex Maria Costello/Guy Martin Harris Suzuki XR69 I brought.

I now have Fybromyalgia and live in pain 24 hours a day. Fybromyalgia gives anxiety and I’ve been out my house - further than the garage - maybe 10 times in the last two years. I won’t be taking the bike to some far off Laverda specialist who I don’t know.

I’ve been in a facility for a month as I was suicidal. I’m now waiting to have my right knee replaced. If I let my bladder get too full I wet myself; if I laugh or fart I soil myself.

I bought this bike to occupy my mind. It has stressed me out and given constant headaches and blood pressure of 205/185 - I’m on pills for life now.

This bike was supposed to help me cope - it’s made things worse. If you can not be kind, don’t bother to reply, I’ve been through enough.
Click to expand...
 
Really tough reading this, Robin. Apart from anything else, it makes me realise much of what I/we complain about in our lives is chicken shit when we learn of the real pain and hardship others contend with constantly. All power to you, Robin - fukin amazing example of resilience against very tall odds.

Now I'm WAY keener to witness a resolution to this enigma of a bike!!!
 
Sorry to hear about your health issues and the problems you've encountered with your Laverda. That seller should be called out so that he doesn't repeat the same thing to someone else. I've seen a number of Laverdas sold here stateside with questionable pedigrees (including mine) , so buyer beware.
 
rocketonarail said:
It`s not always previous owners or dealers who can instigate problems ...........

Nothing to do with us ........ but when BSA-Triumph had a number of T150 blow-ups whilst testing at MIRA , they found potentially similarly afflicted triples had already been despatched to the USA .

They sent a couple of engineers out to America to carry out checks on engines with numbers within this batch ..........


This is what they found on just one Trident , which had been sat in a Los Angeles dealership showroom , awaiting it`s first owner .........

swarf in carburettors , and jet holders loose
corroded rocker box oil feed pipe
oil pressure relief valve not square in it`s threaded seat
4 th gear pinion not seated squarely on shaft
all pistons seized in bores ... ( their words .......... presumably showing signs , rather than seized solid ! ) .......
loose alloy , from machining of timing wheel spindle
alternator rotor nut threads out of true
layshaft 3 rd gear and selector fork blued
layshaft 2 nd gear not meshing correctly
cam timing not at optimum settings


Other things they discovered ( generally )

oil pump gasket holes not punched through , causing blockage in the oil circulation
sludge in crankcases , which they thought may have been sand left over from the casting process
primary drive sprockets out of line , causing possible chain breakages and crankshaft damage ..... ( maybe this was what happened at MIRA )
primary drive sprocket and shock absorber unit teeth out of line ............. subsequently found to be caused by too many being mounted in a stack during the machining process ............. ( presumably to save time ) .........

It was thought the relatively complex triple ( put together at BSA ) was unpopular with factory staff , who were more accustomed to the straight forward twin ...........

Aren`t you glad you chose a Laverda ? ......... :) ..............
Click to expand...
My X75 Hurricane suffered the ‘over stacked’ primary sprocket issue. Primary chain snapped as I accelerated onto a motorway.
Smashed cases. Twisted crank. Etc etc.
 
Hi Robin .......... Sad to hear about all you`ve been through .......... Hopefully all the problems with the bike will soon be resolved ...... which will then allow you to move on , and put all this behind you .

Best wishes ( and hopefully less stress ! ) for the future .
 
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