Goat

I can pick you up G. Wherever the evening takes us.

Following with interest

yes

Sad to see the misery you've been through (other than subjecting yourself to another British vehicle). But glad to see you've got a bit of a second wind. Looking forward to seeing this go from its current state to back on the road! Hoping you rebuild the original engine. Keen to see that process with your high level of documentation.

Oh boy, Looking forward to watching you give another vehicle the "kws" treatment.

It was so effective, that it actually ate away the bottom of the fuel tank. Turns out it was mostly just rust holding it together. Parts are almost unobtanium, and my Scottish and Dutch heritage make it difficult to for out money for a good condition one. So i just mothballed it for a few months. Bought more bikes in the meantime, turned them into projects, and now came back to this. I stripped the tank back to bare metal to see what i had to deal with: It was swiss cheese, but a few hours with the tig i managed to get it holding gas! I ended up having to just plate over the whole area as it was so thin and just kept cracking the welds. A lick of paint, and its just like a new one: Popped the carbs through the ultrasonic cleaner and reassembled: I get it all back together, pop some fresh gas in it. And it fires right up. On all 4. Perfect! Oh, but wait. No it wasnt, theres a sweet smell of coolant in the air, and if I stopped it for 30 seconds and re-started it. A solid column of stem comes out of the right exhaust, and the expansion tank bubbles when i rev it. Cool one, nice. The other headgasket is blown... Ah well, i'm well familiar with this process: Cleaned up the surfaces, fortunately this cylinder head was in a lot better condition than the other one. So just needed a clean, then wanged it back together with the other gasket i already had in stock. She runs, beautifully, no combustion in coolant, no coolant in combustion. All cylinders run at the same temp. Revs up to redline, and starts before you've even finished pressing the starter! I'll call that a success. For now anyway. Giving the wiring clump a bit of a tickle up, then i can put the rear back on and take it for its first ride since i've owned it! Then i can switch back to the Laverda, as i've now got all the bits i need to assemble the engine! And now, hopefully, my bike stand will be free so i can put some other turd on there.

The misery continues. I finally got it all back together and running. Then it started to run really badly. I.E. not at all on the cylinders on the side i had just done the headgasket on. Oh boy. I double checked all the cam timing, and that was all good. So must be the carbs (again). So whipped them off for a 2nd stripdown and clean. I had noticed that the fuel lines had all turned dark brown. Hmm. Rust in the tank? Yep. yay... Better pull the tank out. What a fucking mission. I got the tank out, and yep, she was rough. Tuel sender shows the condition of the inside of the tank: Yummo. I ended up buying some CRC evaporust and soaked the sender in it just to see if it met its miraculous claims. Yep, I'll be dipped, it sure did. A++ Cool one, nice. I'll get some more and fill the whole tank! Over the course of a couple of weeks I was rotating the tank around letting it do its magic. It was working a charm!

Thats rad! Looks like it could have been a factory model!

Good luck on your quest. Hope it all goes well. Scary that its all or nothing. But gotta pay the cost to be the boss eh? @Nominal is our resident wooden car enthusiast. He may know a thing or two or who might know a thing or two.

Does anyone know a good supplier of total oils that take online orders/delivery? Most I've found online are all "Give us a call". Nah bro, fuck that. No ppl please. Take my money and send me the goods without any interaction!

As Bling said, You have to prove its been on the road in NZ before. Can be a mish if there is no plate or docs. Best bet is if you can track down if a dealer has records of that car coming into NZ. Even if it has plates, this still isnt a good enough reason for nzta if the plates don't come up in LANDATA. Anything that was deregistered pre 90s won't have any records. You will need to fill out an Alt Docs form (here) and submit that to nzta or a lengthy approval process. Its a mickey mouse AF, as the form is for vehicles with no history, but the form says you have to provide vehicle history with it. Basically you need to build a case with evidence that this hasn't been imported as a stolen vehicle, or you aren't trying to re-create another car from parts etc. Basically, too hard basket, look for another car tbh irl.

Oh boy, Thoroughly enjoy your amazingly detailed automotive tales and updates. Looking forward to watching the kws swift tart up!

gorirra burger in whitby? (for April)

More pics please

Shit yeah, Had this on my watchlist. Drum front candy pink 2 stroke. All boxes ticked Good to see it on here!

Not a very exciting update. Its all back together and running. Though seems to be throwing oil out the captains side front cylinder... yay. Probably should have done both gaskets while I was there.... Hopefully an Italian tune will sort it. It has been sitting since 1998! While i'm waiting for exhaust bits to turn up. I put on some new rear shocks, and whipped off the front end to replace the super notchy steering head bearings, and fit new stanchions and seals. Races out and a clean: Painted up the triple trees so they don't look as ham: Forks in bits. The stanchions weren't rusty, they had worn through the chrome in one spot. So did need replacing. An expensive endeavor The early wings (75-77) had a weird 2 seal arrangement. The replacment seals only had one, hopefully that won't be a problem. We'll see.

Clutch didn't look bad, cage was ham, wacked it back together as is, but ordered a new cage, which i now have (and have for months). Such a cunt to change though. Will just try adjusting the cable and the throw out mechanism. Hopefully its just something there. Gotta pull the lever all the way to get it to disengage.

The geqrchange itself is super positive on this. A nice caaa-liiiicckk into each gear. No false neutrals. Only problem is i think the clutch is dragging ever so slightly. Which makes finding neutral almost impossible with engine running. Will do some adjustments see if i can stop it dragging. Tis really nice otherwise. Scared it will stall at the lights, as you cant really start it straddling the bike...

Too legit to quit. Took it for a wee ride around the suburbs. Did some hills. Furthest I've ever ridden it. Seems to leak more oil than a brit bike... (Actually no, can confirm that brit bikes leak the most. They even leave oil pools when they don't have any oil in them!) Looks like its the base of the push rod tubes. Should be easy fix i hope. Want to pull the heads anyway to give them a birthday and remove the silver paint Atleast i know its pumping oil around. Hah Pleasure to ride, oodles of torque. Does 100k in 3rd. People treat you differently than they do on my triumph. hah. Feel like a crim. Clutch is like bench pressing 2000lbs with your fist. May need to look into making that a bit softer (and stop it from dragging so i can actually select neutral without stopping the engine). All in all, its great (for what it is), it is so unrefined compared to 70s jap bikes. But it sounds good, looks good and goes good. Plus all legal beagle now. One down 9 to go. Will ride it like this for the next year or two while i try get some more bikes on the road. Then this will go under the knife to build the dream.

Alt docs have been approved. 6 days shy of 3 months after i've submitted them. Need to book compliance now. Probably a 3 month wait on that.... Shit Jeah, I am excite.

Its going back together slowly. As i'm cleaning everything up as it goes back together. I set all the valve clearances, and am giving all the covers a quick once over. Nothing too involved, ain't got time foe dat. Just a quick 400 and some autosol. Everything was so disgusting and stained. Its coming up nicely:

Always enjoy your updates dude. Man you get a lot of shite done. Awesome that you put in all the hard yards to save these cool whips.

Al has really gone off the rails tbh.

Always enjoy your updates dude. Sorry to hear about the misery. Sounds like you're turning it around though!

Just when I though the mechanical gods were cutting me some slack with the local seals, I went to reassemble the rocker assembly only to find out why this head was in the parts bin. The thread was completely stripped on one of the bolts. One with a dowel no less. Yay. Things ground to a halt, as I didn't have any helicoils. Bike night Tuesdays are great. And the infamous Seedy Al turned up: With one of these: Ooosh, M8x1.25 here we come. A quick helicoil and we were back together Gaskets on (Its so happy!): Head on Timing belts are brand spankers even though they look old. Just got a bit filthy from the trip plus engine disassembly and cleaning. Believe it or not, I am cleaning it up as I go. The engine was filthy, and the paint has come off in places and the alloy is stained dark. So can never get it looking mint without a spraybomb. Orders of magnitude better than what it was though. The engine even does a complete 720 degrees without binding. So I must have done something right? Just need to set the valves then the covers can go back on. Tonights job.