GregT

Once again you're in the wrong part of NZ. I've made pins - stepped and plain - myself in the past. EN36 or similar. Machine leaving about .015in grinding allowance. Send away for hardening (used to be good when Farrars were going here. They'd do hardening and finish grind) Hand to a good grinder for finishing - with finished OD's and tolerances. Hardest part was getting a good finish on the bore to avoid stress raisers. It's not difficult. Anton on here - cheap machining in ChCh - could do it. Hardening in Auckland and I'd point him at a guy locally to finish grind.

Did you source any rod kits ? For pins, once you have the dimensions looik through the MX parts sites. ProX is good, you may find correct pins there - or ones you can shorten. I see you appear to have got the oil slingers off. How much crap was in there ?

I'm told there's a show at the Pumphouse on Friday - Matariki 10am till 4pm Can't find it on the net but it's supposed to be a follow up to the one there last year. Custom and classics Mate's taking 2 bikes so I'll be heading along for a look and yarn. If the AJS was complete I'd have it in too.

Don't forget the thermostat controlled fan.....which invariably has stopped working. I was told the light switch on ours didn't work when the PO got it. His wife apparently sat in it flicking the switch until the corrosion wore off. Around half an hour..... Italian motorcycles are just as bad.

Once upon a time you could get a rubber condom for the business end of a coil which kept it all dry. Just slather RTV over it all for the same effect.

Late to this one. Had a customer engine drop a valve seat part way out which produced a similar tapping noise. It'd got too hot on the dyno and dropped the seat while cooling. Only found by finding the seat ring halves in the wreckage and noting the carbon part way up the side. Wreckage was extreme as owner had ridden it like that till the head came off the valve. I wasn't at the dyno run and got to the track too late to stop him going out.

Vaporblast. Leaves a closed pore surface which is less likely to have crap adhere. Mate does it from home in ChCh. If interested i'll post his number.

Glen Durie Engine reconditioners in Coleridge st Sydenham. Every time for me.

Almost any Honda reg/rectifier will work. Common fix.

The early 8V 550's do. This is the late 16V version where the advance is in the box. It is possible to put the early c/f advancer on and run a pair of Pertronic triggers. As pic.

It's of an age where it may also have a clutch cutout too.

God only knows what ignition is on it. Nothing E R&D produced should be compatible with OE Laverda ignitions. Having said that, the 1200 racebike I built has Kawasaki 400 ignition grafted on and running total loss. And if you got a civil response from Wayne - or any at all - you're definitely in the minority.

That's one of his original line. I had two of them for the racebikes. Both died of old age - the transistors latch if they sit unused for too long.

Went out to the racebike & pulled the seat off to see what was on the ignition box label. Hyperpac is the last name E R&D traded under. There's an adress on line if you google it. Someone in Auckland might want to go and ask.....But Wayne has probably left the building. Not much good feeling on line now. I had one run in with him years ago but got what seems to be a working box off him more recently.

E R&D was bringing in generic boxes tweaking them and putting his own label on them. I see aliexpress is doing the familiar mistake of calling it a CDI. It isn't. It's a TCI - Transistor controlled ignition. Capacitor discharge is quite different.

Smaller connector is your triggers down at the crank end. Larger plug is power in, signals out to coils and i think an earth. You've obviously got access to a manual. Trace which wire goes where and ensure all connections are good and you have 12V where you should. Bad plug leads and/or bad caps can give the same symptoms as a bad ignitor box. Time spent with a multi meter is never wasted.

E R&D were in business at least up to a couple of years ago. AFAIK he was doing bike replacement TCI boxes ( NOT CDI) and car stuff on the side. then his biggest car customer - I heard Giltraps - told him he was moving in to their new place and working for them. He still did bike stuff on the side. I got a box off him a few years back. The shop saying faulty box may be because it doesn't have a rev limiter. He did competition ignitions with no limiter. Try it and see. If you do have to replace. Dyna 2000 is the way to go.

Don't do it. HT steel waisted as per OE will give correct expansion rate. Bob Densem made a rookie mistake years back on the speedway singles he made. Used non waisted large OD studs and had continual head gasket probs. Studs weren't expanding at barrel rate so barrel finished up squashed shorter. Next time it ran, the gasket went. Rolled vs cut threads not really relevant - from memory they're only about 20 ft/lb torque.

One of the best things I inherited from the old man was a proper stud removal tool. Saved my bacon many times. Well worth having. Currently struggling to remove a sleeve nut from a AJS/Villiers barrel stud. 40 years in a West Coast shed, unplated steel on unplated steel makes for a pretty good bond. 3 of 4 came off but the last bugger is being stubborn.

The one we had up till fairly recently was a very good shell. They are around - but you have to pay for a good one. In a lot of ways I'm pissed we got shot of it - but with downsizing/health scares/old fucking age it had to go. Once suspension and correct rims were sorted it was a fun thing.

My immediate reaction to reading that was - you're in the North Island. Talking to my customers from up north over many years, the SI pricing has invariably been lower for one-off jobs. Best of luck doing the rebuilds. If you chicken out, I can point you at two good guys down here.

Have you asked around to find someone to rebuild the crank ? It's fast becoming a lost art in NZ. If you can't come up with good cases, it's not too hard to set up and machine that bearing housing oversize. Then a pegged sleeve back to OE size.

Went hunting through boxes today looking for my die grinder and bits. No carbs sorry. Must have gone to scrap.

They're sensitive to carb synch. Not sure if it's on that year but early ones have a plug in the side of the carbs to let you see the slides. But better to vacuum synch anyway. The late ones like yours lost quite a lot of power compared to the earlier models Plug sensitive too. Has it still got surface gap plugs ? i owned and raced a blue model. CDI ignition but still a drum front brake. The White first years, the red next up and the blue ones all had the same barrel porting so all were full power. I used to have an article with the full noise port timings but it's long gone. White and red ones had points ignition.

I had a set of carbs - 18mm bore from memory. Which probably means 90cc model. Pretty sure I tossed them in one of the boxes i brought to the new place so may still have them. I'll keep my eyes open for them and if I find them they'll be giveaways. I was looking at using them on a bucket twin but they're too small.