Shake, rattle and hum.

I had a good long run into work this morning and have figured out that the rattle/buzzing sound is definitely not the engine, but in fact a series of strategic things on all parts of the scooter working in unison to provide a crescendo as the revs get higher, will I figure out exactly what those parts are, probably not, I went over every thing that I could get to and made sure it was all suitably tight and I did see the dust cover on the rear wheel brake drum has a wobble that could be the source, I also took off the rubber trim from the glove box door, a classic sign of a bodge and not originally there, this too could be another source, but I put my hand on it and the sound didn't change. All my tools are in a roll so they don't slide about.... its possible the stand may vibrate too. Unless it gets worse I'm not going to worry about it, between that and the Sito Plus, people turn and look when I'm 100 metres away, so I'll call it a safety feature instead.
Sorry you lost so much sleep Fanta....

Niggles

I have probably put 100 or so kms on her since I got the lights sorted and to be honest I couldn't be happier with the way she's running, there are a few niggles, itches that need to be scratched and the list grows. First and foremost is the bloody brake light switch, I have pulled it off at least a dozen times and tried everything, I've made gaskets, sprayed WD40 in there to lube it up, tried 5 different ways to get the connection to work, positioned the connections and wiring differently and the annoying thing is the switch works when I have it in my hand, but when I fit it nothing, zip, zero, zilch, nada, fuck all.....you get the point, I have promised myself and told the switch in no uncertain terms, that if it continues to misbehave, it will join the growing collection of "used museum worthy parts" I have in a box that I plan to to make some sort of art house piece from to acknowledge the Sprint Vs Vietnamese tour of duty....that and not having a brake light is just bloody dangerous. The front brake still needs a look at, its really spongy and I am certain the outer cable just needs to be seated, I'm just a little bit tinkered out at the moment, but....again not having a front brake is just bloody dangerous. There are a few other small things I have noticed after replacing everything except the engine, one, the engine at almost top speed, probably any speed over 50kmph, there is a buzzing sound, not a loud buzzing sound, but it wasn't there before, it's like, and anyone who has had a BMX, I'm pretty sure Fanta has, and used a peg on your fork to hold some footy cards so that they hit the spokes, making a loud sort of motorbike engine noise, well it did when you were ten, but cardboard was better back then..... anyway, the buzzing sound is there and I have no idea why.
Secondly, the front end just doesn't feel right, nothing to do with the front brake, but I'm not really sure how to explain it, its solid but feels a little sloppy, the only thing I have replaced is the pivot arm bearing, well not replace because it wasn't there to start with,  so maybe it's normal..nothing else done except I use proper grease and not the gritty paste I have found in most parts.
That's the latest, I plan on giving her a good run tomorrow, nice spring like weather, cool and sunny, a good long run will be the scratch for the itch that I have to get out there and ride.

Edit. the final play with the brake switch worked a treat and I'm running with a full set of lights, The front brake also just needed a good hard pull and the extra length was enough to give me some stopping power in an emergency, so I'm good there too now. I fixed up the last sentence of the original post so it makes sense now and acts as a reminder not to blog after a few beers...
Fanta, yep at wide open throttle, will try a bigger jet and see, it didn't do it before I started messing with the wiring which is wierd. and I'm sure that is the plug I'm running too.

out and about

It was a beautiful winters day, after all the rain we have had it was nice to bask in the sun, I took Gloria out for a spin and other than having to adjust the gear cable it was good fun, I parked up under a tree on a quiet street overlooking the river, in fourth and tightened the cable anchor, as I did a Harley rider putted past slowly to see what was going on, I nodded and in typical fashion got no response, I guess he was thinking either...
1. wtf ! is that bloke actually doing something mechanical to his bike on the side of the road himself, isn't that what mechanics are for?
2. Should I stop and ask him if he knows a good cafe so I can go and sit and practice my snarly tough guy look whist sipping my latte.
3. Should I do the right thing and see if he's in trouble? mmmmm after what happened in Brighton in the sixties I'm kinda scared of hard nut scooter riders, I might just practice my snarly look, ignore him and go and find a cafe myself.
4. Suck shit Mate, that's what you get for riding a classic scooter and not a penis extension.

Anyway it was such a nice day I thought I'd do an impromptu photo shoot, just out of town there is a wildlife sanctuary for water birds, ducks, swans, frogs etc. there are a few hides and nesting boxes to promote breeding there and a few board walks and hides, the odd picnic table, It's called McLeod's Morass, The pics are above, it was nice and peaceful and with spring just around the corner, plenty going on, until I spoilt the serenity with my noisy, smelly 2T scooter.
When I got home I went about sorting the brake switch to get the brake light working, will test it tomorrow. It's nice not having so many things to fix, but not as nice having the wind in my face and the crackle of the exhaust behind me.

Disclaimer. I was sort of half joking about the stereotype Harley Rider. I'm sure the rider is a great bloke, and really wanted to help. Harley's are beautiful machines and their riders just as passionate about their rides as scooter riders are about theirs and I get that,  just not my cup of tea though.

another suitable time

My Friday off work didn't go to plan....My eldest son has an ear infection and a cold, one of the two roads into town was flooded, and being on the main highway caused massive traffic problems, in a country town of 15000 people it was as good as I've ever seen living and driving in Sydney, it took me an hour and a half to take my wife to work, its about 2kms as the crow flies, the diversion and traffic were horrendous and if it can it will and it did, my son's medication wore off half way in and by the time we got to the hospital, my wife is a nurse, luckily at times, it was straight to emergency and so began the day I'd rather forget, the emergency department was busy, it seemed every kid in town broke something, accidents, old people almost falling off the perch, the list goes on, happened today, and that's fine, they dosed him up on panadol and we weren't going to hang around with such a non life threatening case, we had a Dr's appointment later anyway, and after the vending machine took my last $2 coin, that was it. My wife called the medical centre to see if we could get in early, three hours early, the floods had stuffed everyone up and we could get in in an hour, we had a picnic lunch of KFC and he perked up, once we got to the medical centre ten minutes early all was good, until we waited an hour  after we were told to be there, by this time his panadol had worn off and he wasn't well. diagnosed, prescribed and picking up number two from child care on the way home.......five hours to do a 10 minute job.
Anyway, that's what you do as a parent, The Sprint V can wait and so can I.

Covers and others

Riding into work each day has been great, it brings back the things I was starting to lose touch with, like the looks the scoot gets, school kids waving and giving me the thumbs up, the sweet sweet aroma of the 2T while idling at the lights, giving her a fair squirt along the long flat sweeping bend just before I hit town. I even think that it's running a little better, the power is good and responsive and she has even become a two kick from cold scoot instead of a standard three, sometimes four and it's winter time here. I have lost a little confidence in the time she has been parked up in bits and have forgotten some of the little quirks. The front brake still isn't right, and I don't think I can adjust it any more, I suspect that the outer end isn't seated properly, the rear brake works well but doesn't feel right, sort of spongy and the gears don't feel the same either, now that I have the adjustment right the changes are smooth but different and I know the brake cable outer is a little longer than the last one so this might be one cause and all the cables are new so maybe they need to settle in a bit, stretch just a little and all will be OK. I have a list of double checks for Friday.
I had to get some medicine for one of my sick boys, so after work I go into the mall and get what I need and as I'm gearing up to leave a little boy and his mum walk past and he is so excited to see the bike I get distracted enough to forget to turn the fuel back on and after five o'clock in the busy mall next to the supermarket, it's not a great place for the scooter to die as I get into the roundabout....I got off and pushed the bike off the road and started it up, much to the amusement of passers by......I'd love to say that won't happen again.

I have painted up my dust covers and although not a great paint job, the colour match is pretty close, you can't see them under there unless you look, so I just won't. The middle pic is Gloria in her parking spot at work, lonely, but looking like a labrador you have just put outside in the cold after laying in front of the fire.

On the road again.

2604 kms on the clock and I'm back on the road...about time I say.
So this is the deal. after nearly asphyxiating myself testing every connection for power, I made sure all the connections were tight and free from anything and I couldn't find any problems, power but no light, WTF, checked all the globes and then realised that I had the switch off at the handlebar, derrr, flicked it and we were lit up. yay.
I had headlights, high and low beam and they are bright, no pilot light but to be honest I'm not going back in there to sort it out until I need to, I have no horn, is it possible to burn these out, I don't know but initially it was honking constantly and I thought it may have been the switch creating an earth, but now I get nothing, I need to research into what the possible causes are, but in the mean time it will be on the same list as the pilot light. I have a nice bright tail light and an cantankerous brake light that works sometimes I checked at the connections and can only put it down to the switch so I will definitely be going back in there to tidy up my, to be honest, half arsed connection, the switch itself is still in good condition and works as it should so it will be just coming up with a better way of attaching the wires than just feeding them through the holes and twisting them.....
Other than that, I need to adjust the front brake a little and fine tune fourth gear and shes back to her normal self, the old tail light cover is being used as I, being a little excited and got over zealous with the screw bloody cracked the new one, the new bulb holder doesn't quite match the old cover but is on none the less with the screws not quite screwed home. The new cover is being super glued back together. and that's it for now. it is a relief and now I can't wait until Friday, I'm giving myself a long weekend for my 40th birthday, which will be on the Monday and I'm having that off too, I'm going out for a decent ride to celebrate on what was my 40th birthday present anyway....my 1971 Sprint Veloce, Gloria.

Regulator....the circle is complete.

My new regulator arrived today and as per everything else I have bought in that's new, the comparison is bloody obvious. The old one is a Sym reg. off god know what and the new one is a Ducati, it's much heavier and very robust. All I need to do is replace all the globes and connect it up and I should.....should be right to go, the gears need adjusting too, when I rode home last week after I thought I'd snapped a gear cable it wouldn't go into fourth, it flirted with fourth but the sound that came from the engine told me not to push my luck with it, so I putted along in third with no lights. I also broke one side of the fuel lever end off, so I am in the process of coming up with a new system that's tank installation friendly, I have just cut a groove in the old one as a temporary fix. stupid design.....

Fast forward a day and good news, the headlights are go, but nothing at the rear and the horn, well I had to disconnect it because as soon as I kicked Gloria the horn was buzzing and when she was running it was constant, I'm wondering if I need to change the switch over to the new one, let me explain to anyone that might not know, there are two types of connections for the horn to work depending on the way it is set up, one is open and when you press the horn button it completes the circuit and the horn honks, the second is a closed circuit that honks the horn when you press it by breaking the circuit. The switch I have in at the moment is the first type and because I don't fully understand the dark art of electricity, I am just assuming this is the case here, I'll change it out and see.....I took her for a squirt anyway, to make sure the gears were OK and to get the garage full of 2T fumes.
Pic 1,2,3 o;d and new and the mounting position in the tool box all straight forward
Pic 4 well there must have been some heat going through this puppy when it blew, it's normally a cylindrical shape and it's not pink
Pic 5 My eldest son was so proud of this crayon drawing he had done on his bedroom wall, with good reason too, he is quite talented at drawing, in most mediums, for someone who is nearly four, what he didn't expect was the reaction he got when he bought it to the attention of his mother........
Pic 6 The broken fuel lever and the square axle from a dis assembled plastic worm bike that I was throwing away, I intend to make this into some sort of user friendly fuel tap lever, not sure how yet.