‘It was moments away from a hefty four-figure bill’
Classic Laverda suffers near miss
The owner of this Laverda 1000 was convinced his inability to get the bike going was battery related, but the problem turned out be much more serious than that.
Mike Russell de Clifford, the boss of
Corsa Classics in Salisbury, was called in to take a look. He said: “The bike had been
‘home butchered’ over the years so it took a while to get it fit for a start-up attempt. When I pressed the start button it just clanked a lot and occasionally turned the engine over, so there was a sprag clutch/starter motor issue and that was just the start.” Mike uncovered more bodgery as he started to strip the engine. The crank nut had been chiselled on and off during its life, but the lock tabs weren’t knocked over, so the flywheel was moving on the taper. And the starter motor ‘gasket’ was an old cornflake packet. Mike picks up the story once again: “When the generator came off a load of sludge and detritus dropped out. The sprag clutch bearings to engage the starter motor were absolutely foobarred. The small springs were broken and the ‘bullets’ that push the rollers out to engage the starter were split into shards. The big starter motor bearing in the cover was like a thruppenny bit. It was moments away from catastrophe.
“He was lucky I got to it in time. Although it was a £400 bill for that job, if the old Laverda had got going, that bearing would have disintegrated in minutes. Then those bits would have got into the engine and probably chewed up the generator too, pushing the bill towards four figures!”