Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Jim McClenaghan Lambretta Tool Set

A while back I contacted my mentor Stu Werner about making my own Lammy tools, because my father-in-law is a welder. I asked Stu if I could do it and he said:

"Hell yes! I have a fantastic homemade tool to extract the mag flange off cases. It works on really stuck ones and pushes off the crank. I find the t-extrators can strip the holes in the mag flange if you are not extremely careful. You can use long bolts you buy at the hardware store instead of t-hadles. Thats what I have. They are the same thread pattern as the rear hub extractor bolts.(there are 2 different sizes of rear hub bolts for the extractor). I have to throw this in, when you do extract the flange off the case, heat up the case around the flange with a torch.

You could make most of the tools yourself. A clutch holder, maybe a flywheel holder, clutch compressor, clutch spring holder etc. They all look a little ghetto even the "pro" made ones..." - Stu


I posted the question on LCUSA and Jim responded:

"Most tools are fairly easily fabricated, and I've made most myself.

The easiest, is probably the clutch holder. Take an old metal clutch plate, braze or weld two 1" lugs (from 1/8" sheet) at 180 deg and you're done.

The clutch compressor is a little more complicated, but only because you need to measure it more precisely. Measure across one of your cases, allow a height for the tool of at least 4", and also give yourself some allowance on the bolt holes (to the cases) so that you can centre the compressor bolt properly. Another way around this, is to add a wide nut to the centre bolt, which will give you more leeway, but it's easier to centre using the case bolts.

A flywheel holder is also very simple. Use 3" NB pipe, with a wall thickness of less than sch 40. All you need is an off cut, so it shouldn't cost you anything. Find someone working on a construction site, and you'll be good.

You can make an engine mount tool from (UK size) scaffolding. Failling that, get 2.1/2" NB pipe, sch 80 or thereabouts and go from there.

I do have a drawing I did for a fork compressor tool around somewhere, and I can up load it if you want. If I can find the time at work, I could do drawings for all of these tools, but it won't be this week, unfortunately." - Jim


"It would be possible to make a flywheel remover, but you'd want to do it on a lathe, using hexagonal bar stock rather than pipe. The problem with using pipe, is that it would have to be heavy wall (XXS or better), and you'd still have to machine the flats on it for tightening into the flywheel. The centre bolt needs to line up precisely too, so you'd want to machine it rather than welding a nut on. Another reason to use a lathe, is because the thread size is quite unusual (metric fine for the Italian ones, I think), and it would be expensive to buy a die that large.

All in all, probably easier/cheaper to buy one from Casa or wherever.

The rear hub extractor is a little different. The type all the shops sell is a bit crap - it woks, but not too well. You could fabricate a good one, from steel plate, and a nut welded in the centre, and it would be far more gentle on the hub. The original Innocenti tool is this style (ie 2 leg gear puller). I don't have one, but it would be easy enough to make, and fairly forgiving dimensionally. There is a picture of one in the "Sticky's" manual, so we can probably figure out workable dimensions.

You'll want to use 1/4" (6mm) plate for this, and for the clutch compressor and fork link compressor.

I have a con rod holder, which you'll be able to make too. It's basically just a piece of 1/2" plate, with a slot cut in it, although 1/4" should work just fine." - Jim


A big thanx to LCUSA member Jim M. for providing the following plans to make your own Lammy tools. PDFs are available as well.

Clutch compressor:
Con rod tool:
Flywheel holder:
Fork compressor:
Jim's rear hub holder made with 1/2 an old Lammy rim:


Click photos to enlarge.

I will post photos of the tools I have made in early August as I will be visiting my in-laws in Portland, OR. I am in contact with a Lucky Bastard Scooter Club member and I may be able to have some actual tools loaned to me to use as a reference when making these tools.

1 comment:

sbeyer said...
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