GregT

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.

Have you got around to the cam bearing wear yet ? Usually it's the inner end which wears worse. Usually fixed by machining the cam end down about 2mm OD. then a bronze bush turned up to fit the head and be about .002in clearance on the reduced cam end. A 5mm roll pin inserted in the head and a matching hole drilled in the bush to peg it in place and the job's done. Did a few of them back in the day.

Frankly, the wif's late Rav4 has a f'n great screen for all the GPS and other shit sitting slightly higher than your example - and it's OE. Have to have the seat jacked up as high as it goes to see adequately.

There's still controversy in Laverda world. What does it say about head stud torques ? Cam blocks have head studs going through them. One side of the alloy block has a 9mm stud - about 30ft/lb - the other side has an 8mm - about 18ft/lb. It's very easy to break a cam block if you fuck it up. Some editions I hear say 30 or so ft/lb both sides.....the 9's are through studs to the top case. The 8's are short head to barrel studs.

I think I've asked before - have you got a copy of the green book ? Manual put together by an intelligent pom. I think I can borrow a copy if you haven't got access to one.

From an unreliable memory the 2 I've done had layshft bearings you could slide off. Mainshaft I think it was only the one on the output side that was pressed on. Check top gear gets full engagement first as if you have to shim it inwards I think everything else comes from that.

Pity I'm too far away. Shimming Italian gearboxes isn't fun. Start with the shift drum. Unless it has around .002- .003in clearance it's not going to select well. Too tight is bad, too loose is worse. Layshaft pretty much the same clearance. Mainshaft, trial and error.

I'd assume that the first current draw would be a spike of quite large amplitude. You could try turning the hot water off tomorrow - just for a few minutes around 4pm. And anything else that comes on then. Should prove it one way or another.

A shop would automatically balance them. Do you have a wheel stand and the experience to balance your own ? Possibility the front rim is out of round from your description.

When the new tyres go on the wheels will be balanced. this should show up any out of round or noisy wheel bearings.

Don't cafe it please. They're sufficiently rare and collectible to make it worth doing the final bits of sorting. Find something less collectible to modify. I had a mint one through the workshop some years back. It had come with a big bore kit fitted and the jetting needed sorting. went well and still had the OE barrel with it. Owner brings it out for the big local runs.