Installing the crankshaft

When preparing to install the crankshaft I realised that the inner race of the flywheel-side bearing was still on the shaft. This is a real pain to remove! You can see it here on the left:



I removed it very carefully using an angle grinder. The one tip I can give, other than make sure you have a very steady hand, is that it's very difficult to tell when you've gone through the ring and are grinding the shaft - you have to look very carefully for a hairline as the two parts are so tightly fitted. Hopefully you won't actually go this far, but if you do it's no disaster as long as you haven't damaged the oil seal faces either side of the ring. When you think you're nearing the shaft, give it a knock with a mallet (on the side of the shaft, supporting the other side) regularly and you'll see movement before you've cut completely through. Here's my shaft finally with ring removed:



Freeze the crankshaft overnight before installing. When inserting into the drive-side bearing do not under any circumstances knock the crank in with a hammer or mallet. Instead use a crankshaft pulling tool or use the cush-drive bolt to pull the crankshaft through. I did this along with a 21mm spark plug socket that worked a treat:

Crankshaft removal

The Lambretta crankshaft is a pretty neat design. Once you're down to your drive sleeve you can put a bar down the middle of it and tap the end of the crankshaft through the bearing. Once through, you need to nurture the whole crankshaft assembly out complete with conrod at just the right angle. Simple as that.







For some reason, I don't have a photo of the crankshaft - believe me, it's out :)