Any Lambretta owner who has worked on their own engine will know that the front sprocket assembly can be a right royal pain in the backside. However those days could be over, thanks to those clever peeps at Rimini Lambretta Centre and Casa Performance in Italy.
The latest product from Casa Performance is a drive sprocket assembly upgrade kit. The old sprocket assembly method involved a long bolt with a small 8mm thread securing the sprocket, cush parts and heavy spring together and retaining it all everything you accelerated. On standard engines that are maintained its generally okay, but ignore it or push the limits and if it goes wrong then damaging the engine side-casing, even piercing it is not unheard of.
Working from the Innocenti blue-print drawings they have redesigned the sleeve collar, although it still accommodates standard Lambretta drive sprocket components. The collar sleeve is now fixed to the crank with a short, high tensile 8mm Allen screw that tightens down on to a collar sleeve. That collar sleeve also has a large, internal thread and this is to take the new (supplied) 18mm threaded cap nut. Once tightened down, this holds all the spring and sprocket components in place.
Apart from being stronger than original or remade items, another advantage is that unlike the originals, the Casa Performance set-up does not need an extractor to remove it from the crankshaft. The new large 18mm cap nut has a central hole. The reason for this is that when you unscrew the Allen screw that holds the actual collar sleeve to the crank, it acts as an extractor and effectively pushes the whole assembly off the crankshaft in one go, without the need to dismantle anything and you no longer need a puller! Sorted.
Two versions of the sprocket sleeve collar are being produced, one for all standard Italian, Indian and Spanish engine casings (X176) and the other for CasaCase engine casings (X176a) that has a slightly thinner base. The RRP is 75 Euros (approx £63 at the time of writing) and they are available from Rimini Lambretta Centre or from any Casa Performance dealer Worldwide.
Rimini Lambretta Centre have also put a little video together so you see what the product is all about and how to fit it yourself. Click here to watch it on Facebook.
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