WARNING-some of the following images may offend some purists.

Foreplay is over. Time to get serious.

I was hoping that what I found when I pulled the tank wouldn't be too bad, I knew there would be something, but I hoped none the less.

The picture speak for themselves.

Pic one. zig zag weld on the side of frame and the horizontal seam just below the diagonal webs.

Pic two. you can see a small weld running just above where the botoom meets the side part of the frame.

Pic three. this photo doesn't do the fucking mess justice, the welds and crap around the cable hole is nothing short of shocking. My thinking is even if you are going to do a crap job, do it the best you can, have some pride. fuckwits. below is a better picture but running your fingers around the area really hits home.

Angry rant over.

Pic four. shows the rest of the seam.....grrrrrrr

Pic five. I'm pretty happy this shot worked, what I can see I'm not that happy about. You can see a seam and a weld along part of the length of the frame wall, you can see the rivits that hold the floor mat on, these should be screws. But my favorite bit is the screw top centre WTF. it is approx. 3 inches in from the end of the mat about an inch and a half off centre and there is a rivit in the same spot on the other side in the same location. My only thoughts are these held the bits together while the welded them? I hope I'm wrong but cant see why else they would be there. anyone??

Finally pic six. this is what I found rolling around in the pool of fuel, I say pool but it was just quite wet, bits of filler, rivit ends, a rivit nail, bits of cut off wire ends, swarf (metal shavings) paint flakes, dark red if anyones interested.

So the next question is where to from here?





Fuel leak

This is where my royal wedding night went pear shaped.

I had a closer look at the leak and I loosened the exhaust connection to the cylinder, it had popped off when I first put it on and not done it up tight enough, it was hot when i fixed it on the side of the road and since then had slipped down a little more, say nearly 10mm so I hit it back up with my hand as far as it would go and tightened it up good.

You can see in pic one the fuel that had come out of the hole in the frame that the cable come through. I had a little bit of fuel left in the tank so I siphoned it out and took out the tank, the fist time and I was nervous at what I would find, as it turns out, with good reason. Pic two...well you can see the fuel pooling a little at the bottom, I'm going to go into what else I found later.

The fuel was leaking from the petcock, only slightly but enough, so I disconnected the fuel hose and tap lever, which looked to be welded about 80mm in from the petcock end, WTF is with calling it a petcock anyway??, I took it apart and there were very small particles in there which I think may have compromised the seal, there was a bit of crap in the bottom settling bit but that is to be expected. Not sure if I need to replace it but a good clean should do it.

Pic three is the bits of the petcock, I hadn't pulled the valve part off at this stage, you can see its old, but still works fine, you can also see the weld on the handle shaft and I'm not sure the two cut outs on the filtered reserve tube should be there, they are pretty crudely cut out. the rubber seal for the settlement bit was slightly perished as well, but still serviceable in a pinch.









Starting the wiring map

I am trying to figure out my wiring and do a map of what goes where, colours etc.

First up I pulled all the tools and bits from out of the LHS cowl and took the battery off it's holder so I could get to the regulator. as you can see in the first pic, the connection was a bit dodgy so I cut it off and re-stripped the wires, twisted them and attache a new connection.

Next stop was the switch. Pic 2 & 3 show the old and new switches, note the new one has the brass connector bit that goes to the horn switch, well it was on the old one before they butchered it off, the connections are different as noted previously. I cleaned the old one up as best I could and I took plenty of other photos so I don't forget which colour wire goes where. Pic four is the wire cluster. I also noted the colours at the headlight connections and the horn. The thing is its still no clearer just yet.

What Royal Wedding?

You have got to be kidding, not wasting one moment of my time on that royal crock of crud.
I've got better things to do.
Last night I was riding home, just on dusk, thinking how good is this new halogen headlight, My tail light was beaming, the speedo awash with an internal glow, there was no incessant rattle coming from the headset and the engine was slightly complaining at my mistreatment but was cracking along nicely regardless.....I really can't believe how well the bike runs, given all the possibles and probables.
Fast forward to this morning, my new start-up routine had been compromised due to my stupidity, and I found myself roll starting Gloria again, much to the amused interest of the builders working three doors up, I putted back into the drive to get my gear and realised all...yes ALL my globes had blown, except the brake light. That's it, time to sort this once and for all. Over the next few days, read evenings after the two boys go to bed, I will be delving into this light issue, and the flooding issue, it is time to pull the tank I think and check out whats going on down in there, I think something has wobbled loose and is creating a slight leak into the cavity. I need to pull the light switch and give it a good clean and rewire it, there is a short somewhere. I have to re locate the exhaust as it is now fouling on the centre stand, there is some sort of leak somewhere in the vicinity of the cylinder head/exhaust manifold connection. and from past experience I am bound to find something else .....but you know what, I love this bike in all her temperamental, idiosyncratic frustrating glory. all small problems and mostly easily fixed. well we'll see about that.

Flooding problem, switch & horn.

I have been having trouble starting the SPV lately, it has been a bit colder in the mornings but she was a three kick chick since I got her and things weren't right. I bump started it every day for three days, and even then it wasn't a nice "bump, sputter, idle" kind of start it would be a really slight fire and a lot of ticking , another fire, bit a bigger, then an off but regular fire then away she'd go. I generally turn off the fuel 50-100 metres from home and she konks out just as I pull into home and turn it off.
Today I tried something different, I turned the fuel on then off and she went off at three kicks as usual, then I turned the fuel on once she was idling. I noticed that the stand was fouling ever so slightly with the stand so I got down for a look and saw that there was a drip of what I think was fuel and- or oil just near the hole that the cables and wiring come out of the frame, I got some paper towel and cleaned it up and then saw some residual staining around the connection of the exhaust pipe to the cylinder and also on the cooling fins above the connection. I was late for work so I didn't do any more investigation, but I will be once I get home.

On the light switch front I have a new switch that has a different horn switch set up to the one I have. I will try and have it swapped over so it's the same. Top pic is the new one, see how the brass circle connection is pushed to break the circuit and activate the horn. Pic two is what I have now, except older, it has the brass circle push out to make contact and activate the horn.
NOTE. these photos have been borrowed from the Internet.
I'm sure there would be a way to wire the different switch up, but I'm going to sit tight on this one while I sort the fuel leak out.
The update on the new horn is I can't get the correct size self tapping screws to fit it here in town so I am trying to get my hands on some.

Task 1 & 2 down

I wanted to swap out the front brake outer as well as replace the broken inner cable, easy job. I just disconnected the cable at the bottom and pulled it through from the top, the top of the cable was all frayed and flared from where it had broken so it was better to pull it up. I then grabbed the new outer and threaded a nice long gear cable from a tandem bicycle through it and then the old one from top to bottom and just pulled it through. greased up the new inner and threaded it through and connected it up. good to go.
While I had the speedo and headlight out I decided to give the throttle side a good clean. disconnected the pin at the cable end and worked out the handle bar, cleaned it up, the grease on it was old, gritty and caked into all available crevice, some even had paint over it??
In between the cable connection and the headset hole there were three "spacer/washers" they were paper thin and one was flat, one curved and the last was squashed and bent, you can see what I mean in pic. 5.
In pic 6 you can see the hole that the end of the bar slides into, its not flat, not sure it should be like this but I need to replace these "spacers" as I now have around 5mm horizontal play in the handle bar.
Pic 2, 3, 4 are the tidied up headset, I whacked plenty of grease in there and put it all back together, it feels much smoother.
That done, I installed the new rewired headlight unit back on and it looks a treat, I'm going to miss the rattle from the old one with the loose glass, well not really.
I kicked her over this morning and the lights work great, its a new halogen bulb and is a ton brighter, a bonus is now the high AND low beam work from the switch on the handle bar, that wasn't the case before. cool.
Next on the list. Horn.

New Headlight and more

First on the list is the new headlight. I have had a good look in here before so no surprises really, I just basically took the first pic to show where the colours go and took off the crappy connections, put new individual ones on, two of the old ones were doubled up, pic two, one connected the other shoved through with a little hope thrown in.
Pic three, the old and the new, and the new bulb holder all hooked up the same as the old one but a lot tidier, electrics aren't a strong point of mine so if it doesn't work or blows the globes, then I will consult more knowledgeable folks than I.
The last pic is to show the difference in the profile of the chrome bezel. New one on the right.
Number two on the list is replacing the front brake cable outer and inner. I think I've got the theory but just need to read up before I go ahead and tackle it. Below is what came out of the lever end anchor, not sure what to make of it.

day one of phase two.

I had to bump start the scoot again yesterday, It was a little cold but two days in a row...
This morning I checked the plug, it was still looking ok, a nice brown, I gave it a cursory clean and replaced it and proceeded to kick it over to no avail., tried to bump it and nothing, great.
I wheeled her back into the garage and then realised I had forgotten to put the lead back on, idiot, I kicked it over and then did the quick daily check, in which I snapped the front brake cable and realised the entire lighting system, except the brake light, had given up.
Just in the nick of time my box of parts arrived yesterday so I will now go about replacing the entire headlight, and fit the new horn, I'm going to get a new tail light fitting and light switch for the handle bar that should eliminate the dodgy fittings as the cause of the short in the wiring. that will do until the weather improves in a few months. I plan to ride over winter if the sun is out, no matter how cold it is.

six months on

Tomorrow marks the six month anniversary of the arrival of the SPV. It's been an interesting trip so far and I have learnt a lot of things, found some weird and baffling, dodgy and just plain lazy things and I haven't really delved any further than I've needed to, why? well the bike is running pretty well, just about everything works, lights excluded, so I'd rather be riding around on her than spending my evenings trying to figure out what's wrong, why and bluffing my way through trying to fix it.
I have enjoyed it, even when I've been swearing at it, grazed knuckles, ill fitting and odd nuts and bolts and having to go back and forth to the hardware store for a socket thats 2mm bigger tha I have.
Some facts.
Well what I've spent on spares and relacement parts, no idea, I vowed not to keep track of it for my sanity's sake, but I do have a lot of bits "just in case" and they are parts that are known to wear over time. I have changed things for peace of mind, like the rims, tubes and tyres, brake shoes. A few bits that have been old and rooted, things that just needed to be replaced, nuts, bolts etc.
As the photo shows, kms on the clock just over 2500, plus another 180 odd off it when the speedo was awaiting repairs, which were due to my own fault and not knowing what I was doing when I took it out in the first place.
Blogger, well People from all over the globe have been checking in for a look, some have commented, offered invaluable advice and experience, some to say that they enjoyed the story, Thanks and I hope everyone continues to have a look now and then.
How did I celebrate? well it was a beautiful sunny autumn day and I rolled out into the driveway and proceeded to flood the engine that wouldn't kick over. So I pushed her up the top of the court and bump started her, then rode into town, giving it heaps in the cooler weather, nudging 100kmph. that should get the bugs out. As a pressie she's getting a new piaggio horn and a new headlight, these should come in the post tomorrow. watch this space.

Old reliable.

I check the weather forecast for the day before I decide which scoot I'm going to ride to work. Today looked glum, possible storms all day. So I opted for the GT200. She has always been my backup for rainy days and days I just can't afford a breakdown, not that I've had a real breakdown yet anyway, it's a good theory.
I rode Gloria every day but one last week and when I went to start the GT...nothing, flat battery. I looked at the ominous sky and thought " I don't have much choice" So Gloria it was. It got me thinking as to why the modern scooters don't have a kick start as a back up? some 50cc models do but not the bigger models, to the best of my knowledge, so a flat battery means your stuck and you will always find out when it's too late, such as today. I didn't really think I would ever have to use the Veloce as a back up.
As it panned out the storms found their way out to sea and missed town altogether. win win.
The GT will go on the charge as soon as I get home.
My box of bits should arrive this week, cant wait, I will be fitting a new headlight and my new horn, there are also a few odd bits that I will be replacing, but I might wait until they break first. and my new focus will be revisiting the wiring, I went two months without blowing any globes and in a week all I have left are the pilot light up front and the brake light, I'm almost certain that the headlight glass revolving and shaking madly is almost certainly the culprit for starting the chain reaction. we'll see.

Cracking the century

I left a bit earlier this morning, it was a misty, still 5 degrees C morning and there is a nice long flat section of road before I get into town, little traffic around I thought bugger it lets see what you can do. Knees in, bend down a little full throttle 80-90kmph no problem 95 bit of a smile, 100 I'm grinning from ear to ear. 102 before I ran out of road and I dont know what was louder, the engine screaming or me laughing. When I got off in the carpark at work I was still smiling like a mad man, the two people that saw me thought just that by the look on thier faces and the uncomfortable hellos.
With a grain of salt I must say that Vespa speedos are famous for being wrong, I would have most likely been doing 90-95 but I wont let the truth get in the way of a good story.
2450kms on the clock. My parts are in Brisbane and will be sent next week after a bit of hardware I cant get here in the sticks is purchased on my behalf. I will definitely have something more interesting to write next week.

A good deed I think. (note-off topic)

Sometimes little things happen and you wonder if you should speak up for the greater good.
I did such a thing and now i'm wondering if it was such a good idea.
Coopers Sparkling Ale. My brew of choice and the brewery keeps on churning it out and someone has to drink it right? Well a few weeks ago I noticed I was getting maybe 4-6 stubbies ( for the non Aussies thats a bottle 375mls) a Box (24) that had lids that were just on, no schhhh sound when you opened them, some were spoit. I thought I'd shoot off a quick email to the brewery in South Australia saying basicly
" Dudes you have a loose cap thing happening, I love the beer, don't want a lot of people changing to some other beer thats crap, like VB, because of it, just thought you should know blah blah"
About three days later I reveived a response " Thanks, we will look into it, appreciate the heads up, we'll shout you a six pack for your trouble" gave them the details from the bottles like dates etc.
I was happy with that, I wasn't after any freebees but wasn't going to knock it back, had a call from the sales rep for my region and she organised it, I went and picked up a nice cold six pack....job done. I had a warm fuzzy feeling from being such a great bloke.
Fast forward a few weeks and I cant budge the bloody caps, they must have replaced the limp wristed guys putting the lids on for gorillas. "hey love, can you pass the bottle opener please, my fingers hurt?"

The scoot is running great too btw. She had a bit of a burp fart yesterday but I was WOT up the hill on my way home. No harm done.