Lambretta – Crank and clutch plates out
I got the crank out. To lock the crank I used a piece of copper pipe through the small end of the con rod to hold it in place against the engine casing. With the drive side assembly off a tap on the top, using a piece of pine to soften the blow and it dropped out. Did more cleaning last night and it’s starting to look ok.
Next step is to make something like this :-
The plan is to use two old clutch plates and then have two lengths of box section steel pipe as handles. One plate on top, the other below. I guess I have to also strip the cork off the plates.
Used my new clutch compressor tool to remove the clutch plates last night. After taking off the circlip which holds it all together I thought it wasn’t undone properly so I loosened the tool and then poked it with a screw driver and the whole thing exploded like a bottle of champagne! Springs and oily cork lined plates flying everywhere. Normally the next step would be to remove the clutch housing and start dismantling the gear box. I’m rather reluctant to do that as it’s a real birds nest and actually seems to be in good condition. As Irish John on the Belgian Lambretta forum commented “The only bad gear boxes I’ve seen are ones that have been opened. The factory were very good at putting them together. If it ain’t broke”.