Goat's Laverda 1000

[Goat]

So a while back this popped up on trademe, in wellington. I was first to view and bought it then and there. A big gamble as it had been completely stripped down for over 25 years!

Its a 1979 Laverda 3CL. Its a 1000cc, 3 cylinder, 180 degree crank Italian stallion. These were the fastest production bike in the world for a bit. A claimed top speed of 140mph.

They're pretty rare. With only 7 thousand odd being manufactured across all triple variants (3C, 3CL and the Jota)

Its a major project. I though i'd just get it, put it all back together and sell for big bux. lol. Yeah right. She's a bit fucked. It was completly stripped down in the mid 90s, and has moved around a few owners since. Has spend the last 13odd years under some dudes house.
 
I'm a sucker for misery/punishment, so i've decided to do the right thing and fix it up proper.

This is collection with Seedy AL and his sweet ute. All the parts were wrapped so i had no idea the condition or what was missing:

Parts laid out in the shed ready for a shit load of stress and money. Oh boy. The color and seat are vial and will definitely be changed.

Just what i need. Exotic 70's Italian engineering in unknown condition and in random bits and pieces. Yay.

 

[Goat]

After some initial investigation, I soon saw why it was pulled down, cylinder number 1 bottom end. fucked.:

It has had some catastrophic engine failure at some point. There was damage to the cylinder head, cam chain guides, pistons and crank.
It looks like the cam chain had snapped at full noise. Damaging everything related. Oh boy.
Worst looking damage seemed to be the crank above. (or so i could see)

After trying to find someone keen to tackle a Laverda crank rebuild, i ended up having to send it to Redax Engineering in australia.
The dude there Red is a super GC. Gave me guidance and advice, and fully rebuild the crank with new bits and bobs, including largely unobtanium bottom end bearings from his own personal stock. Legend!

I built a custom crate, and sent it away not knowing what to expect.

 

Got to Red all good and he set about working his magic. The laverda runs a low PSI oil system that pretty mush just pushes oil where it needs to go. All the bearings are roller, so it only needs oil, not pressue.
It has sheet metal slingers on the crank, which centrifuge oil into the main bearing. It needs super regular oil changes, as if you have dirty oil, all the particulate centrifuges out and blocks up the slingers. Which happened to cylinder number 2. Fucked:

He was doing a few other cranks at the same time:

 

 

 

 

 

[Goat]

Here is Red cutting off the crushed old slingers and rolling on his new ones. You can see all the crud in this one:

And done:

Crank going back together:

Finished product. All new bearings, new bottom end rollers, a couple of replacement conrods, and 2 new crank web with pins. $$ but worth it. Better than new (literally, as this year (1979) the factory fitted incorrect bearings that would catastrophically fail within 20,000ks! haha. So Italian):

So now this is safely on my bench. I've dropped the cases off to get some broken threads welded up, aswell as the oil pump surfaced machined as it has a horific scratch in it.
I also dropped the barrels to see what can be done about the scoring. Cant pick it up with fingernail, so hopefully just a hone and i can continue running STD size pistons.

Once i get the cases, its off for vapour blasting. Then i can put it all back together. New gearbox bearings are en-route. So hopefully have the bottom end nipped up by the end of feb.

[Goat]

One of the most noticeable and annoying things that are missing were the clocks. One would expect something like this to have some super bespoke italian clocks or something. But fortunately, most of the Italian exotics of the 70's, well, Ducati's and Laverdas anyway, ran nippon denso clocks. Cool.

They are the same style as the Cb750. Oh awesome. Should be easily be able to find some. WRONG. They run the same style as the 1970 CB750 k1. Which are super rare. (yet still more common than Laverda clocks). These have the idiot lights inside the clock and have some sweet jewl lenses on the faceplate. 

I somehow managed to find a pair on trademe, though the dude only sent me the tacho, and couldnt find the speedo. Argh!!!
Need restorin g, and the drive touches the needle sometimes, hopefully i can space it out when i swap faceplates. You can see the Neutral and Oil lights at the bottom:

If any of you jokers have a speedo like the above in your hoard, please let me know!!

My backup plan was to source later model CB clocks, and modify them to accept idiot lights in the back. Pretty easy, but I would like to do it properly for a bike like this, as they're pretty collectable. They are pretty much identical except for the provision for the 2 idiot lights. There are some slight differences, but they will work sweet and look OEM until you take them apart. No biggie.
I've managed to get a couple of these later style clocks ready to roll if i need to (which i could also use on my ducati when i get around to restoring that, so no major if i don't use them for this build).

Will tackle and document the gauge restoration once i've got the motor back together.

Everything is in full swing, will update as i have stuff to report for anyone interested in the resto.

[Snoozin]

Not enough love heart reacts for this mate, Laverda triples were a major object of adoration for me as a kid. I have this old book which basically details every new bike you could buy in 1976 or so, and the Laverda pages were heavily thumbed over!

Looking forward to it shaping up.

[Transom]

Yep always been a fan of laverda triples - they sound so good 

[Lord Gruntfuttock]

Loving it. Sweet bikes once you sort the electrics. Bloke here has a Jota...

[crash]

So cool. A mate had a Jota in the mid 90's when we were in the UK. Took me for a blat on the back. Holy shit it could moooove. 70 MPH in the wet on a dual carriageway.

 

[tortron]

Hi Joe

is this it?

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/parts-for-sale/gauges-clocks/listing-2948718311.htm?rsqid=720fbef7996647388d42a4ae52ef1cd6-065

or

 

[tortron]

nother rpm too

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/parts-for-sale/gauges-clocks/listing-2948718324.htm?rsqid=720fbef7996647388d42a4ae52ef1cd6-065

 

 

 

unless you got these ones and he didnt update it

[Goat]

Thats the one i tried to acquire...

Chair though dude. Appreciate it!

[Chris.QCR]

Gonna be such a great bike dude !

Stoked to see it all being done right too. Gonna sound so lush

[anglia4]

Similar but not quite the same as the clocks on my CB650 (which I could part with if they help this project!)

Awesome project!

[Goat]

Chair man,

The cb 550s and 650s had 200kph ND clocks. (I see yours are nippon seiki, same as the 400s and 350s)
The 750s and the Laverda have 220kph/140mph clocks (so the Laverda faceplates wouldn't fit).

Have got a 220kph ND speedo in stock to cut up.

Cheers for the offer though!

[anglia4]

^ This man knows his Judo well!

[tortron]

220 is a bit fast, do you really need a speedo that goes that high?

 

i see you can get all the faces and lenses at least. Probably some money making reproductions when they are selling for 600+

[tortron]

looks similar, maybe good for parts @Goat

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=3014570138&bof=bSn9f7UP

[Goat]

Cheers @tortron. Have had my eyes on those for a while. They're probs fucked. And i've already got more ND tachos than i have the need for. They're the correct shape, just don't have the idiot light tubes.

In Laverda news. I've sent head to Radax Australia for a rebuild.

I've got all the gearbox bearings and gaskets to put bottom end together. Waiting to get cases back from some repairs. Then its dropping off for vapour blasting and i can start assembling the engine!

I got the head vapour blasted before i sent it away. So here's some pics of that, cos picless posts are dumb.

[GregT]

Good score. Good too that you found Red. I'm in Canterbury and I've rebuilt a pair of 1200 triples for a customer here. One a race bike and one a road.So you could say I know a little about them. The race bike crank is one of Red's finest with Carillos and his high com forged pistons too. I'd really recommend you join the Laverdaforum as there is a lot of specialist knowledge available there. 

I do have several tips for you anyway. 

Chains - get both camchain and primary from Red. He stocks the very good duplex chain which is the best primary yet found for the triples.It's actually a timing chain from a big Mercedes diesel so is expected to last forever in that application.

Case nuts and washers. I'd doubt if they're all there so buy yourself a packet of 6mm and 8mm nylocs - yes, the factory used nylocs. Washers - a packet of 6mm stainless washers and a packet of the smallest OD 8mm ZP you can find. The recesses in the cases are small and I've found big washers crumpled into place....

Head nuts and washers. You'll need both 8mm and 9mm plain nuts and thickish but small OD washers to suit. I've bored 8mm ones to fit the 9mm studs.

One final thing which is often overlooked and now's the time to check it....The gearbox mainshaft drive side end is prone to break at the crossdrilling inside the sleeve gear. Get it cracktested while the engine is apart. Worth looking at the bronze bushes condition too.

I'm only on here by using the library broadband. This site is almost impossible on my home dialup so I won't be answering any questions on here.

Greg T

[Goat]

So yeah, this has been progressing in the background.

The Italian Stallion has been slowly progressing. Everything was outsourced, so was just a waiting game. Distracted myself by buying an ironhead project (which is now all but finished), and a 1st gen Goldwing project. Which still needs collecting from the deep south.
Gotta have plenty of projects on the boil eh?

I dropped the engine casings off with @Grotty so he could weld up some seriously damaged threads. One of them had a tap broken off inside it!
He dropped it to a wizzard who used some magic science thing to get the tap out. He also heli-coiled every thread in the case, and machined the oil pump surface as it had a decent gouge in it.  The cases are as good as they're going to get!

I still need to bead blast the cases, as they've been sand blasted but have that furry texture. Gonna visit @kicker this weekend and see if they fit in his blasting cabinet. Def want the peened look.

Got an email on monday, cylinder head is done. Just like everything on this bike. It was FUCKED. Only thing he could end up using was the head itself, and the valve springs. hah. Even the head had multiple cracks to weld up. Jeeze. This poor thing.

I also pressed apart the gear clusters to replace the bearing, i noticed the hardening on 5th gear is wearing off. So need another one of those. Will fully inspect the mainshaft for any cracking, and check the bronze bush condition as per @GregTs recommendation.
So in a couple of weeks, i should have everything i need to assemble the engine and nip it all up. Then i only have to do everything else on the bike!..

Regrets? Yes. But i'm too balls deep now to bail.

Can see the cracks here:

 

 

And all done, ready to be shipped back:

 

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Thank fuck.

 

 

Oh yeah, as there is no photo of the actual bike. Here is a Laverda 1000. This is the end goal: