one thing led to another

I'll start off by saying that this is the first time I've done any serious soldering, apart from the end of cables this is all the soldering I've done.

I replaced the wires coming from the stator, one at a time, put on the crimped circle end bits and taped them up nice. I was happy that it was the best I could do and then went about re-installing it back on the scoot. A comedy of errors through distraction led to me squashing up the little tab in the centre of the stator, breaking the leather, which was all but worn through anyway, off, bending one of the screws and scoring the back side of the stator......

Now its not rocket science, feed the wires through, locate the timing marks and do up the three screws, flywheel on, torque nut, sit back after the ten minutes and have a beer and congratulate yourself... It didn't quite go like that though.

Attempt one, wires fed through, screws done up, but the one closest to the wire hole had clamped the heat shrink wrap and I couldn't pull it through, so off it came.

That sorted, attempt two everything on, looking good, fly wheel on but not all the way, I first thought the woodruff key might be stopping it from going right on, so I took it out cleaned it, checked the slot in the shaft and flywheel, all good. Back on same thing, gave it a bit of a push, still wouldn't move. off again. This time I left the woodruff key out and it slid straight on. OK I thought, persistence will pay off so back on, key in this time and I got a bit more thread and was very close to where it should be, so I put the lock washer and nut on the shaft gave it some. I went to get the torque wrench ready and thought, I'm sure it moved last time, sure enough the flywheel was solid. WTF have I done. You know that wave of panic that sets in when you realise you may have really stuffed something up, well that happened.

I pulled it off to find that in my diligence of sorting the wiring cover I had only done two of the screws up properly the last one was a good 4-5mm from home. feck and it was bent, in the bottom pic you can see the score on the flywheel, idiot, I then proceeded to strip the head of the screw trying to get it out.

I ended up straightening it with a punch and with little left in the Phillips head eased it out. It was then I noticed that the little flap bit was bent and squashed, the leather broken and hanging off.

So I packed up the tools, sat down, had a cold beer and instead of congratulating myself, I sat there swearing under my breath and shaking my head. I'm not sure how many straws I have left before I lose it. This has pissed me off.

update

I don't think I'm going to win any blacksmithing awards, but after a few cracks I got something that vaguely resembles the covers, in fact i think I might have one more go at the bigger one, but otherwise they will do the job. I have been told that the screws that secured these covers were pan headed and slotted, I couldn't source these but got Phillips head ones instead, I had to cut them a bit because they were about 5-7mm too long. all I need to do is paint them up and fit them.

Next job is re-doing the wires from the stator, from the pics you can see that the quality of the wires, soldering and the end connectors is at best poor. and what is that leathery thing in pic. five?

My wiring should be on it's way in the next week or so too.

The waiting game.

I have just been treading water, waiting waiting for the wiring loom that is on back order, doing what I can when I find stuff to get it right, nothing to report, I did get hold of a set of dust covers for the underside of the handlebar, keeps crap out, but since they are like rocking horse shit, and not having them is the norm, doesn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of things and all that. They are on loan so I can make a set and draw them up to have them made, but after a bit of cutting, hitting, fashioning, bodging, call it what you will I made some good headway on one of them, and in fine Aussie tradition, this Friday, I will be chucking a sickie to finish them off while the missus is at work and the kids are at daycare. The first and second pics are of the covers, they are off a powder blue SS180, which is the midst of a restoration at the moment, a big thank you goes out to Sharon for letting me borrow them, check out her mod gear and seat covers, Cosmic Breed Mod Gear.
I have been checking out how I can incorporate the keyed barrel kill switch that is already there into the new wiring, in doing so contacted Planet Vespa to find out what colour wires do what. There are four wires off the back of the barrel. I'm glad I asked as these dont come from the manufacturer as standard colours, PV put what they have on hand in there, no surprises there.
So in Pic three, other than the very poorly done soldering job, there are four wires, Black-top left, did go to the negative side of the battery, Green-top right, obscured by brown wire, this goes to the junction box and when the key is in the off position, this breaks the circuit to the spark plug so it wont spark. Red and Brown are power to the horn switch, in this case brown is power into the barrel from the junction box, red out to switch, obviously when the key is off this circuit is broken. So I should be able to nut this out with the new loom prior to putting it in, and redo that crappy soldering job too.

Gear selector issue

Everything on this scoot is mix and match, different sizes and all over the shop, bloody annoying.

I finished the re-cabling today with the rear brake inner and outer. I was tidying up putting things back together and I realised that the new securing anchors are taller than the ones that came off and that once I put the cover back on it would be fouling with the cover so I had to put the old ones back on, they had new bottoms on them and the tops are both a Phillips head and a bolt, they look worn but do the job, that little disc is probably the difference but the pic will show the difference. The cover itself has PX written on the underside of it, which confirms someone who has offered help suspects that the engine may be from a P125?? anyways

Progress made

It has been a productive day, hit the weld with a dremel and cleaned it up as best as I could, got to it with some with acid again and painted it with some super duper rust transforming primer, I didn't want to grind too much away and there was a tiny lip in a few spots that I wanted to make sure no rust could form.
While I waited for this to dry I was checking out the cable ends of the "new" outers, bugger it I'll replace them too, so the gear cables and the clutch cable inner and outers were replaced more on that later, with that came the gear handle out and cleaned up, talk about caked in gritty grease, it was the same as the other side but the cavity between the bar where it goes into the handle bar was chock a block with it, and the cable wasn't routed through both holes in the bar only the last one?? and the outer was all bent and had a decent cut in it half way down?
So at dinner, my wife asks how it's going, I go through what I have been doing and she says "so it's pretty much a re-build then?" "Suppose it is" was my reply and I begin to list the things I have replaced.
The rims, tyres, tubes, brake shoes, wiring (when it arrives) and all switches, petcock and fuel tap, cylinder cowl, headlight bezel and headlight, tail light, all cables except the throttle and choke, fuel line, exhaust, jets, front dampener and suspension arm pin and bearings, brake and clutch levers and all the nuts bolts and screws, grease nipples, washers and spacers that I come across.
While the engine is running well I'm not touching it.
To Ev, I am patient but always have a hammer handy just in case, thankfully I haven't needed it yet. "Keep the Faith" Love that and yes I will.
After swearing and adjusting, re-doing and head scratching I got the cables in, the clutch cable gave me the most grief, it wouldn't engage the clutch, even after pulling it tight, turned out to be that I had actually pulled the outer through the hole in the handle when it was supposed to be left behind the hole and just the cable come through. I also applied a coat of cold gal paint to the area I had done the grinding.
Not much else to do now other than wait, but I'm sure I'll find something.

Pic one and two are the cleaned up area, still looks rough but there is nowhere for the rust to hide now.
Pic three. the clutch cable, what a mess.
Pic four. the gear selector complete with grease and crap.
Pic five. the crappy grease that came out, the rear brake securing bolt and some of the bits of the patch that I could get off by willing it back and forth with pliers.
Pic six is the welded area all painted up.

Moo Baa Double Quack Double Quack

Google it. anyone with young kids will probably know that it's almost as hard to get out of your head as "aga do do do push pineapple shake the tree". bloody kids tv show dittiies.
I recall that I was singing wiggles songs in my head all the way to Stanthorpe.....three and a half days there and a bit more again home. blah blah blah.
Back to business. I went out and bought a low range Dremel, Have always thought I would use one...I  have now. I was a bit reluctant  to make that  much noise, because it was after 2030 (830pm) and I appreciate the people next door, the Pub across the road isn't so liberal.
Comments on the above are welcome. I think the rest  speaks for itsself.
Lets get Quacking.

The welded drama begins.....

Treating the rust, which as it turns out, was a layer of greasy, dusty, gritty crud that once I got to it with some acid, 3M rust dissolver, and a small wire brush a cople of times I uncovered  what was a very haphazard welding job but was all bare metal with an undercoat of a paint that is very much like the colour of rust. I pulled off some of the overlapping metal that wasnt attached to anything with pliers and hope to get in there with a grinder and tidy it up, I'll treat it again and then hit it with some serious primer and cold gal paint. I've felt everywhere in there,  inside and out, and although its done badly, it looks and feels to be solid, My cerncern is that the hole that the cables run through is rough and has worn through the cable outers, I think I will disconnect the cables and pull them back through the frame and really get in there and tidy it up.properly.

K has asked me why I haven't contacted Planet Vespa chasing an explanation, good question, short answer is I don't know, I think I might though, there are a lot of small thing wrong, lazyness, corners have been cut, I can count on my fingers the things that are "new or "reconditioned" and the list of old, worn out or just not there is growing. I did expect these things to a degree and my story is a lot better than some poor people out there. Will contacting them acheive anything? probably not, they have the cash and I have the bike. What will make a difference is if people stop buying these scooters, kill the market and they will go away. If this stops one person from importing a bike then that's a start.
Either way, I love the bike, love working on it, I get a lot of joy from fixing it up bit by bit and with that comes piece of mind, it's something only someone who owns and works on one of these scooters will understand.

Old wiring pics

Here are some photos of the old harness. Definitely not new.
I had contact from Scooterworks today, the harness is on back order so I'll just sit tight and wait, I'm really starting to get a little frustrated at just looking at the SPV and not being able to ride it, what makes it worse is that just about every Sunday since I took her off the road, the weather has been perfect.

Tinker Tinker

I pulled the old wiring out, I'm no expert but there is no way that it was "new" at best it was old wiring that has been tarted up a little, some of it was new, all the connections were dodgey, old, some were just shoved in and screwed down she'll be right style, Ill take some pics another time.
I replaced the fuel line, no big deal, in and out, the old one was rigid and after a look online at the length discussions, apparently it's important to some, I measured and cut it to the same length, it measured 20 inches and seemed to work OK. I had to take the connection off the carb, I did find a wad of fluff in it, which was weird, I'll be interested to see how it goes once it's back on the road....faster I hope.
Pics two and three. what can I say......I am trying to figure out what exactly has been welded. I have felt in there to try and establish if it is the back part of the frame, I don't think it is. what I do think is that the part of the frame in the rear that forms the top of the wheel arch is the section that has been replaced. The top has been welded oh so nicely, but still you can see the welds. the bottom, well my three year old could've done a better job....I have been through this briefly before. any decent self respecting tradesman/artisan would do a job as if it were their own project. the bodge effect sets in and somehow that one run of the grinder, another welding rod and a splash of anti rust paint will break the budget....."it will be ages until they see the workmanship in here under the tank"..great job Planet Vespa.
Moving on.
Pic four. I'm hoping that I won't have to pull the flywheel to confirm these three wires are all correct, I do know that I will be replacing the connections. I can see that I will probably end up pulling the flywheel and checking the stator plate and the connections to be sure.

Wiring Episode Five

In preparation, I started to pull a few things out. Starting with the battery, it will give me a lot more room in the tool box. No surprises the battery is made in Vietnam, perhaps for the market in Jipan, next up was the brake switch, the switch itself is in good condition, the wiring and connection weren't. The rectifier with 4 connections, I am told they should have either 3 or 5. It only had two wires coming off it and no earth. This could well be the problem with the globes blowing, but I think its best to replace the lot and be done with it.

I was walking the streets during my lunch break a few weeks ago, the weather is cooling down and for some reason I began to notice a lot of the older blokes all had a hat of some sort, this got me thinking as to what sort of hat I should get as an old man hat. Enter the Pakol. I worked in Immigration detention for a short period years ago, there were a lot of Afghan's, one particular older man I remember for his hat, which he kept trying to give me every time I commented on it, It was a traditional Afghan hat, the Pakol. After a quick online search, a smooth transaction and a weeks wait, I am the proud owner of two 100% wool Pakols, one black and one stone grey, as modelled by Myself and my youngest son Merrick. They are a bit scratchy but warm and I am fairly convinced that the trend will not catch on in small town Victoria, but hey I had to start somewhere, couldn't hurt to try them, now which hat next?

No response from the Scooter shop on the wiring harness just yet either.