Pressureangle

If it's not broken through to the fluid compartment, I wouldn't even disassemble it. I haven't seen the crack-prone area, but if it's a dry crack in the bellhousing, I'd consider having it repaired in situ while it's bolted to the motor and cools to it's appropriate position. If you have more reason or desire to get the motor out of the frame, so much the easier. What's perfect, preferred, or a sufficient minimum are all different answers but don't serve the question, only your sensibilities. Mine run towards 'best utility with sufficient optics'. Anyone have a picture of a similar crack?

Precisely these symptoms when my starter failed.

Simple, really once it's pointed out. The engine has a crankshaft angle at which peak cylinder pressure has the greatest effect (about 20* ATC iirc) so it's not the ignition that matters, but how quickly peak cylinder pressure is reached. Ignition timing is moved to accommodate the rate of burn to get the peak where it does the most work.

I have about 5 pounds of lead shot I was going to put in the bars on the '85 LeMans, but after the engine work the vibration went away and it wasn't necessary to try out. Might give it another go in my '74 Aermacchi this spring tho.

We call BEF 'Flyback' in the U.S.

I think I remember an old guy talking about his grandfather having one like that

We all know what happens when you leave an iron H-D or old English dry sump sit a month, don't we? ...don't we...?

Well here, 'clan' carries only a little baggage, particularly if you grew up around any UK communities. I'll give them latitude for being Italians. clan (n.) "a family, a tribe," especially, among the Highlanders of Scotland, a form of social organization consisting of a tribe holding land in common under leadership of a chieftain, early 15c., from Gaelic clann "family, stock, offspring," akin to Old Irish cland "offspring, tribe," both from Latin planta "offshoot" (see plant (n.)). The Goidelic branch of Celtic (including Gaelic) had no initial p-, so it substituted k- or c- for Latin p-. The same Latin word in (non-Goidelic) Middle Welsh became plant "children."

There *is* money in waiting. I once surfed eBay for over 3 years looking for a correct front fender for a '62 Norton Atlas. When one finally came around, it was near $400 with only 3 bidders. Rarified air, but unobtanium.

I've used eBay since nearly it's beginning. It was simple, the people were honest, and cheap. Now, it's a nightmare; fees are high, flooding by new product makes finding pearls difficult, 'sponsored' product pushes your searched items out, can't even find the 'used' condition button without scrolling. It's so blatantly engineered to capitalize volume at the expense of your economy that I won't even list anything I can't get $20 for, when I used to list anything I thought someone would want usually starting at $0. I can't imagine trying to make a living on eBay (as my neighbor does, and quite a decent living too) So I cut some slack to those listing used parts at 'ridiculous' prices, because they're running a business, at least of sorts. But I lament the days of people just trying to help their hobby community by not throwing parts in the bin. Done crying for now...

Ever see a moment pass by when you have specific information, but wonder if it should see the light of day? This is one of those moments. There was a discussion about oil pumps back in the '90s when I was racing 883 Sportsters. They have a georotor oil pump. The question at hand, an academic one, is why H-D went to georotor after decades with a gear pump in that place. One guy who happened around during the discussion was an automotive engine builder of some renoun; he said he'd been told that gear pumps with high pressures had the problem of pressure spikes when they were too tight, and that bleeding mitigated those spikes. No consequence of those spikes was put forth. The trade-off was that idle oil pressure was reduced. Upon building a small-block Chevrolet for my pickup truck last summer, I saw offered a spiral-cut gear pump for high-pressure/performance applications, with the claim to reduce pressure spikes. The claim was that these pressure spikes increased hydraulic lifter pump-up particularly in 'stock' or 'limited modification' engines. Meh. Who knows? H-D went to the Georotor pump at the same time they started using hydraulic lifters in the Sportsters. I do know that in most American engines, distributor/oil pump drive gears are a point of failure, and it's critical to choose compatible components. Maybe there's something there on the durability scale. My daily navel-gazing.

Read this thread. My starter seized the front bearing and had apparently been the root of hard starting for quite some time before complete failure. https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23219-starters-batteries/#comment-265184

Tangent thread; circa 2001 I went to Stockholm, Sweden for two weeks. The first Saturday night we were walking towards downtown when I heard a familiar rumble. A few moments later a parade of a dozen or twenty American muscle cars rolled by like it was Woodward Avenue. I laughed out loud. Glorious.

If you really want the best quality, as mentioned above there are a number of brands that are arguably equivalent in durability, but the nationwide professional brands are Snap-On, Matco, and MAC. Personally I'm a Snap-On customer, as they have the largest distribution network anywhere I've been. I won't make an assertion today, but 20 years ago all the hand tools were made in USA. They have the sub-brand Blue-Point, which are good tools with warranty but are usually re-branded outsiders found less expensively elsewhere. Meh.

I was brass-deep in the restoration of a 1975 RR Camargue. Ugh...4 piston brake calipers, 2 calipers per wheel, cross-linked accumulators for the brake system, etc. Amazingly complex and completely unneccessary. The engine, however, was positively sublime. It was weak by American standards, but once made new you literally couldn't tell if it was running or not with the hood down. Sleeved iron block, aluminum cylinder heads, replaceable aluminum lifter blocks, huge diameter camshaft. I became enlightened about the practice of delivering Man's best effort, as opposed to an economical effort. The burled maple interior was book-matched side to side, and Rolls cataloged every other set of veneer between cars, to facilitate as in our case the replacement of a piece of wood with matching grain. I hated the car but the experience was Religious.

Since when did the Germans constrain complexity to utility?

Not to take a ridiculous side trip, but I can't think of a single WWII tank that was boosted. Aircraft usually, Messerschmitt's variable supercharger was a decade ahead of everyone else's.

My hyperbole and sarcasm is always lost.

Before the fight starts, can we all just agree that forced induction as an addition demands an order of magnitude more development and tuning to the point that you've equaled the engineering of an OEM?

Not a Sport airbox. Couldn't find a picture of an uncovered Centauro airbox.

These are legit, I did the research and bought them myself. Was considering buying another batch to store and toss out all the used spares I have.

Bicycle has been the only physical therapy that's kept me mobile for 30 years. I'm convinced it's the only reason I haven't had to have surgery myself, both knees and lower back. Also, I can't overstate how much benefit in stiffness and joint pain I found in eliminating sugar and reducing carbs from my diet.

Electrical engineers can afford amp probes.

Ok, some easy checks. If you have a multimeter, measure and record the voltage differential across these points; If you don't have a voltmeter to use, a 12v test lamp will work except on the battery cranking voltage. Battery voltage while static vs. cranking Battery terminal to cable Battery + cable to starter solenoid terminal Starter body to transmission house Transmission house to Battery - cable Battery - cable to battery Battery voltage cranking should not drop below 10.5 volts Voltage drop across the above test points should not exceed .5 volts No test across a connection should have sufficient current to illuminate a test light. I just replaced the starter on my Sport-i because it had a seized bearing, which presented as a bad battery. Cranking voltage was ~5.5v.

It was listed for Daytona/Centauro/Sport 1100.