General Category > Bike Builds, Rebuilds And Restorations Only
Little Green Wing - Aermacchi Ala Verde
Canuck750:
This past Saturday I stripped down an Aermacchi 250 motor and ordered all new case bearings from 123 Bearings in France, amazingly the order arrived this morning including the shaft seals.
Cases heated to 300F for a good half hour, bearings cooled in the freezer, bearings drop in with a satisfying clink.
The head has been heated as well and the worn valve guides drifted out, new guides on order.
I noticed three of the rocker cover recessed 6mm holes are striipped. Not much extra metal around the holes for an insert so I have to be precise drilling for the inserts. I made a steel plate jig that I can bolt the head to at a sixty degree angle to the milling machine table, some shimming to get the rocker cover face dead level in all directions then drilled and taped for the steel insert.
I set the tap in the mill collet and rotated the quilt by hand to tap the inserts M10 x 1.25 inserts.
Thread the insert down and stake the setting tabs
After locking the insert I flat file the top of the insert flat with the rocker cover gasket face
Three inserts installed and the head is good to go for new guides and a valve grind
I found a NOS con rod, pin and big end bearing, the bottom end should be as good as new.
cliffrod:
As always, I’m really enjoying seeing your progress.. Thanks for the pics and update, Jim.
Canuck750:
Thanks Clint! I am enjoying learning about these Aermacchi singles from the 60’s and comparing them to the Benelli Egg motors I have been building. Each have their unique details, I like the rugged clutch design of these wet clutch Aermacchi engines with the one huge compression spring, a very clean design in my opinion. The cases are also very thick and have plenty of web reinforcement, the Benelli cases don’t feel as solid. The Aermacchi cranks have full circle flywheels, large diameter and heavy, much larger than the 250 Benelli single crank flywheels. One thing the Aermacchi engineers got right is the cam shaft with its bearing carrier and the tappets can be removed without splitting the cases and the kick start ratchet gear and spring are carried in the outer side cover, brilliant!
Canuck750:
The power sport machine shop I use called to tell me the rebuilt crankshaft with new connecting rod, pin and big end bearing was ready and the bored out cylinder were done.
Sonny’s Aermacchi had the NOS con rod kit and Pooles Cycle in Hamilton, Ontario had the 1st over piston kit.
I followed a YouTube series Paul Brodie has run on building an Aermacchi race bike and used his method to shim the transmission shafts, end float shimmed to .004”.
Waiting on the machine shop to finish installing and reaming the new valve guides and cutting the valve seats.
All case ball bearings and shaft seals from 123 Bearing.
I found a contact in a Italy that may have a center stand and the correct upper triple clamp and fork shrouds for the Ala Verde clip-on handle bars, fingers crossed as this would complete my parts search to build an accurate Ala Verde replica.
Another Italian contact sent me a picture of his fathers Aermacchi Ala Verde bought new from the factory in 1961 and still on the family. Beautiful machine in excellent condition.
cliffrod:
Good luck with the short fork shrouds and smooth triple tree. I know sourcing those racy bits can be really tough.
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