That time of year..

Firstly, to all, enjoy this time of year, regardless of your beliefs, time with family and friends is priceless. Always.
A quick update. Cases are back from the soda blasters, clean as a whistle, parts are all in and on their way from the supplier, Mark of Carters Classic Scooters in Adelaide, thing is they haven't arrived and I'm carting the family up to New South Wales to spent Christmas with my family in two days. The "P" project will be waiting when we get home in a weeks time, I'll have a few days before I go back to work to hook into it..... We have just sold and bought a house an have moved in two days ago, busy times with three boys under 5, haven't even had a chance to ride Gloria for over a week now, which reminds me I bought some expensive 2T and some mineral 2T for the run in, I cracked both bottles for a smell, you know you're hooked when you say to yourself " mmmm i like the smell of that".....
All the best.

Waiting

The P case is at the soda blasters, the last of the parts I am waiting on from overseas are starting to arrive, once complete I will get all of them delivered at once and then I can start.
I found out the problem with the SPVs rear lights, the holders have little tabs that touch the sides of the globe stems to complete the circuit, through a series of bulb changes I had managed to move them to a position that the must have just been touching, the long ride the other week obviously didn't help.

Up with the big boys and girls.

 This driveway is a great way to start the day

 The Vespa Club of Melbourne-Geelong branch monthly breakfast. Rainbow.

 Picked up a few hitchhikers on the way.

The long and winding road home, it was here I realised I had no rear light, nor brake light.

On Sunday I rode down to Geelong to have breakfast with the guys, a nice quiet road in and back, after coffee we rode down the Bellarine Peninsula to Barwon Heads, for lunch, I left the bunch here and rode home, it had been a long ride on the SPV. By the time I got home I had raked up 280kms, 174 Miles, used 9.5 litres of fuel for a range of 29.5 kmpl, very happy with that. What was even better was on some sections the speed limit was 100kmph, being in a group of modern twisties, GTS 250 and 300cc, I was a bit nervous being the only old scooter, the group normally has a bigger contingent but not this day, second from the front so the pressure to maintain speed was on. The old girl did herself proud, sitting on 85-90 real kms over long distances and up hills, at least three riders complimented the performance, one said that she thought she'd have to slow down up the hills like when she's been behind other older scoots, but was surprised I went a bit quicker instead and apparently she doesn't smell as much either. That's nice to know. A flawless day in the saddle.
Project P is on the starting line, parts have been paid for and the case is clean, just waiting on the few things coming from overseas.
I checked both rear globes and neither had blown, so it will require some further exploration, 280kms of rattling and vibrating has loosened something.

Case has arrived.

 

My P200E case arrived yesterday, very clean and ready to go. My parts should start to arrive next week with a bit of luck, above is a picture of my two next projects, on the left is my spare Sprint Veloce cases and on the right the P cases, below is the P cases split, I'm going to enjoy this.

 

Off topic, the house we owned across the state has sold and we have bought a place in town, we move in on the 17th of next month, all of us are very excited, me especially because my workshop is 6 times bigger than the one I have now and I wont have to share it with any cars...

 



Flag counter

You might notice a new feature on my page, a flag counter, I wish I had of added one of these at the start, the page view count is about to top 10,000, with people from every corner of the globe.

	Australia 5260 United States 1237 Portugal 1186 United Kingdom 474 Indonesia 234 Malaysia 232 Russia 191 Vietnam 84 Germany 75 Romania 71
	Above is the snapshot of the top ten, but trust me there has been visitors from places I had to google to find out where they were.

update

For the first time ever I actually over took a vehicle today, snuck around him on a corner, dropped a gear and zipped past him giving him a cursory glance and a slight head nod as I past the drivers seat, what would have made it better was if it was a car or even better, a harley....The fact it was a fully loaded up loggging semi trailer making a 90 degree turn at no more than 30-40kmph made little difference to me...I showed him.
I also came within 5mm of lowering the property's chicken population to five, my track from the road is the main driveway, past the house and the chook pen and then on to the workshop, sometimes they are in, sometimes out, there is a massive hedge, from which the startled bird flew out of at speed toward the front wheel, only to change it's mind five times in a split second, I was all over the place and was sure I would have to bail, luckily for all involved there were no casualties, would have been a deconstructed roast chicken tomorrow though.
Now back on to the Project.

 

I had some "help" in the form of two of my boys, here they are trying to get it started. I then cleaned up and rejigged my engine stand, it was in two bits and swayed when you were doing anything, nothing some crudely bashed together brackets and some screws wouldn't fix. I sat the spare Sprint V case on it and she was solid, it was then when I noticed this...

 

The stud that goes through the case just above where the kickstart is, it's bent and the thread is all but worn to flat, not what I wanted to have to fix but...

And now I wait.



 

 

 

Ball is now rolling...

Th GT is gone and the wheels have been set in motion, the case is in transit and as far as I know the engine parts are being compiled. Yesterday I drilled out the engine mount rubbers on the SprintV case in prep for soda blasting, it was a lot more challenging than the first time when the rubber was more like shaped hard foam rubber and I had to cut the shaft out with an angle grinder. Clauss Studio engine mounts are on order. I hope to have two new running engines by the end of the month, depending on time wasted waiting on postage.

Project "P-Rocket"

In a few days time I will be embarking on the next exciting Vespa adventure, I have sold my beloved Vespa GT200 and will be parting ways with it on Saturday, it will be missed for sure, it has taken me over 20K kms and I loved every minute of it, but you can only ride one scooter at a time and after the love, effort, the sweat and blood, cash, the swearing and the satisfaction I have experienced with the Sprint V, I just couldn't give it up.
So the other side of the deal is I get in return for the GT, a handful of cold hard cash!
What am I going to do with it? I will pay some bills, buy the good wife a pair of shoes, maybe a much needed child free night out to dinner and a movie, my eldest son starts school next year, so he'll need uniforms and some other gear, the mortgage etc.
Then I will start the "Project"
I have a set of 1980 P200E cases on the way from the US, a big thanks along with a bottle of Australia's finest rum, Bundaberg of course, goes out to my Vespa sounding board and friend Porter for his assistance and the cases.
P-Rocket will be rebuild using the best NOS Piaggio parts I can find, everything will be brand new or top condition used and supplied by Carters Classic Scooters in South Australia.
Once up and running I'll drop the current engine and through it in for a good solid reliable ride, the current engine will be stripped down and I will rebuild a set of matching Aussie delivered Sprint V cases, 1974 I think from memory, I got these from another Vespa sounding board and friend Kelvin, of Kickstart Scooters in Brisbane, for this I will be using what I can from the engine and replacing some things I know need to be replaced, like rear axle, cush gear and a few odds and ends. I guess then I will decide if I need to find a frame for it or sell it?
All this will start as of Saturday and I hope to be kicking it over before Christmas, with the experience I have already gained with the SPV, A P range Haynes Manual and the 5 hr engine rebuild DVD from Scooter Techniques, this should be an easy and enjoyable build.

Tool Box Audit.

I touched on the subject of my tool bag and have since done an audit on its contents, this topic is discussed occasionally on the forums and most tool kits are similar. I have run with the " if I used it in the workshop then I should carry it" theme, omitting big ticket items of course, like a torque wrench, angle grinder or welding equipment.....
So here we go.

Apologies for the fuzzy shot.
So top left is small square box, it has 5 jets in it , a couple higher and lower to what I have in the carb. along with some assorted nuts and washers, next to that is a rectangular container it has 4 spare spark plugs in it, two sevens, a six and an eight. Below that is a home made fuel tap lever, why? well I have since found out that I installed mine incorrectly and it rattles off and just hangs in there meaning everytime I stop I have to try my luck to connect it up to switch it off, a pain yes but the upside is that I can pull it out and it becomes an anti theft device, no fuel no go, of course if someone wanted the bike they'd take it anyway...moving down an assortment of spanners mm- 6, 7, 8, 10, 13 ,17 & 11/32, 1/2. also a small shifting spanner, under that is some emery paper, across is two small plyers and some side cutters, up again plug spanner, up is a small wire brush and a punch and a U bolt, not even sure where that came from, electrical tape and the red thing is a first aid kit, up from that is my oil measure cup, bike tyre pump, 2T oil rags, a set of spare cables, below them is a container of washers and nuts, cable ties some wire and spare globes, below them is a socket set 4-13mm, a Swiss army knife and a leatherman and finally a purple pen and 4 screwdrivers a big and small Phillips head and flat. So there you go, I have lined the bottom of my tool box with carpet and all these tools go in a red material shopping bag and roll up nicely, leaving enough room for my beer run gear when I need it, that consists of three pieces of 19mm decking taped together, perfect height to prop a box of beer on the floor and centre rib, and an occy sprap that I run through the bag hook. nice, I did a run the other week and was strapping the box of beer on the scooter when a tradesman pulled up beside me in his work ute, as he got out I heard him laugh and just looked at me and said "Fuck yeah" and walked off.
On a different note, on the way into work today the speedo clicked over the 6000km mark, 1580 on the new DR Kit. This photo looks all out of whack, just a screwed up angle.....

Next weekend will be a maintenance day on Saturday, Sunday is the Vespa Club of Melbourne Geelong branch breakfast, so I'll be hitting the open road, it's a 150km round trip, should be good, weather forecast looks good too, about time.

Check your nuts!

Another brilliant day so I took the old girl out for a spin, after I rolled her out and kicked her over I went back into the workshop to get my gear and noticed a small pool of oil, by small I mean about a bread and butter plate size, I knew I had a slow drip there at the bottom of the case and I was just keeping an eye on it, I hadn't riden for a few days thanks to the shite weather we are having and having checked the oil last week and topping it up a little more than I needed to so I wasn't concerned about the level. I cleaned it up and all around the lower half of the case and took it out for a good run, I have circuit I do around town, it is about 50-60 kms and it takes in the sites and also give Gloria the chance to be seen and admired. The SPV didn't miss a beat, I took it along a long straight flat section of road, it's at least two kilometres long and really opened her up, The needle on the speedo was hovering on 105kmph and there was more there, given the speed tests I did with a GPS that would be about 94ish in real speed, I kept it WOT for the best part and other than the points bouncing once or twice, causing a slight stutter, she ran well but I always have the clutch ready to go and I must admit once the needle hits 100 I start to get nervous.

Once back home I parked outside in the afternoon sun and began to investigate the location of the leak, there was no oil there so I just started checking the nuts, the drain plug was tight and I couldn't move the top up screw, I worked around the case nuts and they were all good, I always forget the lowest and with the nut on the wheel side because it isn't sticking out in your face....ah ha the culprit, it was quite loose probably a full turn before it started to bite!! I plan to do a full check at the 6000km mark which is less than 100kms away anyway so I'll just be mindful and vigilant until then. I've added a photo of my tool bag, I have all sorts in there, I might get it all out and do an inventory, more out of interest, its a hot topic on most forums and everyone has an opinion.

On a different note, I park outside if it's not going to rain and it's only 20 metres to my office and right in the middle of town but back one street from the main road, very prominent spot, but not at 8am like when this picture was taken, and the whole population of town would have seen the scooter there at least once. There is an optometrist right where I park and one day one of the girls came out and said that at least once or twice a day people ask if anyone in the office rides it, and the fact that they could have sold it at least half a dozen times.....most days when I am on my way home someone stops and comments or asks questions, She is very popular, kids still wave, I'd toot them if the horn worked, I get a double thumbs up from a guy I pass each morning on his way to get his newspaper, the Sito plus exhaust has people turning around to look at what is making the noise at 200 metres away, I always get end up with a smile on my face.
Off topic, I found out my five year old son has an imaginary friend, that's fine, shows he has some imagination and he and his 3.5 yo brother both play with him so he doesn't feel left out, my concern is that his name is Leon.....

A decent run at last.

Saturday I had arranged to meet a guy I know from the Vespa Club of Melbourne, he has a property in a small town of Birregurra, which is about 20 odd kms away on the Geelong side of Colac. With a full tank I set out quite a bit earlier than I needed too as I was taking the back way to avoid the highway, it's a bit longer but is a brilliant ride, rolling lush grazing country, dairy cows and sheep, rustic farmhouses and tree lined roads with little traffic, just superb. The weather was a bit overcast and cool, perfect really. The SPV went well, did not miss a beat, pulled OK up some of the bigger hills and cruised along the flats, I had to dodge a racing echidna that bolted out across the road only to stop to marvel in the noisy green machine as I rumbled past. I pulled in to Birre at the arranged meeting point and waited. Leaning against the seat waiting in another world in my head, a guy walked up to the door on the building next to me and he says with a smirk.
Your not part of one of those outlaw bikie gangs are you?
I put on my snarly face and looked him in the eye. Yes
Well I better get out of here then.
That would be the best idea.
We had a chuckle and he disappeared inside.

My friend arrived, we had a coffee and a chat and I headed home, on the way I was passed by a ute with three young blokes in it, I could see them all laughing and giving me the thumbs up, waving beer bottles about, I waved and they disappeared into the distance, just out of town they were pulled up on the side of the road, looked like they were getting fresh stubbies out of the esky in the back and taking a leak, I got the same reception as I zoomed past. I eventually pulled into the driveway at home and propped outside the workshop, cracked a beer and sat down, it was a good way to end the afternoon, ended up being about an 85km trip all up, with speeds up to 100 indicated at times and a cruising speed of about 75-80 real speed for the bulk.

Fuel consumption 2

OK it took me a little longer to use the tank of 98 premium than I thought, the riding conditions were pretty much the same as the last tank and the results aren't really that surprising.
I rode 119.1 kms and used approx. 4.5 litres, there was still an inch or so in the bottom of the tank but I didn't want to push it up the hill home because my box of beer would have gotten warm.....
26.46km p/l slightly better than the 95 octane but not enough to warrant the price difference. I will keep a record of future tanks just out of interest and to see how the consumption goes as the DR kit gets more kms on it.
Speedo reads 5532km- 1112 on the new kit.
I'm looking at giving the old girl an overhaul at 6000kms, change the gear oil, a really good clean, a nut check, the usual stuff, I have just the slightest amount of oil collecting at the lowest point of the case, almost certainly the drain plug, thing is it is still clear and clean, surely the gear oil has gone that grey murky colour after this long in the gearbox? anyway the level is still good and it doesn't leave drips on the floor, just keep an eye on it.
The thing I hope to sort as well is the horn, it has been disconnected since I did the wiring almost a year ago now, I hooked it up back then and it honked constantly when I kicked it over and then it stopped, I taped the wires up and left it since I had had enough wasting riding time sitting in my shed looking at the bloody thing, now she's all good I will revisit it, that and I'm kind of missing getting my hands dirty.
Sun's starting to shine a bit more these days, see ya later winter, don't rush back.

Fuel consumption

My odometer reads 5400, the new cylinder barrel and piston has 40 kms to go before it has racked up 1000kms and since there is nothing playing up I thought I'd just ride it, enjoy it and perhaps see how she's going on the fuel consumption. I'll do this over the next few tanks of fuel and see what I come up with.
First fill up yesterday yielded 121.6 kms from 4.75litres of standard 95 unleaded fuel...25.6km per litre, this is about what some people I talk to say they get depending on the type of riding they do, mine is a mixed bag, a few minutes at idle start and end, a mix of 80-90kmph indicated and around town, stop and start, down hill to work, up hill home, the rest is mostly flat.
I filled up with premium to see what difference, if any, it makes on the above figures, I only did this as I had a 5ltr container of the stuff at home anyway.
Other than that, she's back to a three kick start even on the frosty mornings, and running well... Happy Days.

The smell of it.

It had been a long week of not being able to ride and I thought I'd wheel it outside and kick it over for no other reason than to get a whiff of the good stuff. Here's a short clip of the engine ticking over.

You can see a character graze I got when I slipped on the moss in the shed and it fell against an rusty old rotary hoe.....I took it out for a quick ride and in true Victorian style it rained and it cut my fun short anyway...she's running well, I put a B7HS plug in and gave the mix screw an 1/8th turn out and the hesitation I had was gone. I can say that it's just hungry for throttle, if it's not flat out it's begging for it.  Once it's warmed and I'm out riding the idle is a little faster than when I start it up, but after about 20 seconds it settles down, not sure why?
900kms on the new DR kit, 5305kms on the clock.

The freedom

A good few days of dry weather has given me a chance to ride in to work each day, despite the frosty mornings and misty fog the old girl has been firing up on the third kick, run for a few cycles and stop, one kick and 10 seconds and stop, one kick and 30 seconds and stop, then I give her some throttle to get the revs up and then she'll sit there and idle away, I dont blame her for being a little cranky in the morning when its only 5 degrees C.
I go the long way of course and it gives me some chance to open her up a bit as well as the usual morning traffic, She loves the cold weather too, I get her up to 75 on the speedo before I even get to fourth gear, I haven't pushed past 90kmph just yet but there is plenty more there, I still want a couple of hundred more kms on the cylinder before I get too excited, a clear weekend coming so theres a chance to get some decent miles on the clock. She doesn't like the slow cruising of regular traffic, much happier getting some decent throttle. I couldn't be happier to be back on the road and reliable again.

Success

So I decided to take a couple of days off and enjoy what was supposed to be a couple of days of clear winter skies in what has been about a month or so of miserable rain and wind, I ordered a new set of points and a new condensor along with a couple of idle jets to try out to see if I could get to the bottom of this starting and idling issue. When I got to the shed with new parts in hand the promised weather had not arrived, so I set about changing these bits over. Flywheel off and I took the top off the wiring junction box so I could take the stator plate off and low and behold this is what I found, in the top picture you can see that the screw securing the black earth wires had vibrated itself off completely and was sitting in the back of the box, also the screw holding the green "hot" wires was as loose as it could be before it too fell out, that explains a lot....My wiring doesn't look that flash in that picture but I've done it myself and I know its solid and functional.
I decided to change out the points and condensor anyway and perhaps keep the old ones as emergency spares. In the second photo you can see the expert wiring connection from the condersor unit to the points, nice work Planet Vespa.
The third photo is the new and old points units, you can see that the bottom one has a slightly bent stem where the fixed point half is located next to the wooden cam thingy, this meant that it could only open a little way which was why I found it hard to clean the points in the first place.
With the new units in place soldered and screwed, I put the flywheel and everything else back on and gave it a kick. Third go she sprang to life and I let her warm up for a minute or so, still having to crack the throttle to keep it running, once it was warm it idled, a bit rough but I wanted to take it for a run before I adjusted the idle. I rode into town and down the same hill I had to bump start it a week ago and she began to burp, fart, backfire so I turned around so I could get back to the top of the hill under her own steam, it wasn't pretty and she gave up the ghost at the top of the hill. Now I'm no soldering guru, in fact I had no confidence in my soldering on the ctop of the condensor at all, since it came off twice before it stuck, in my wisdom I put some electrical tape over my solder with the thought that if it did come loose I could limp home, I'm not even sure what it actually does other than " condense" the spark before it heads out to the coil and then the plug, anyway some reading to do there.
It turns out that the moving part of the points was catching on the tape so through the hole in the flywheel I cut and pulled the tape off and bang she started first kick and ran well, phew and the solder was holding tight, double phew.
I adjusted the idle and off I went, she was like a new bike, the sun came out and I enjoyed a lovely 80km ride. On day two she started second kick but because of the cold took a few goes to stay running, no throttle involved, she idled and warmed up by itself. I refueled and had another trouble free 45km ride, I had to adjust the idle again but that was all.
I just have one thing I need to do and that is to figure out how to gap the points, the gap is bigger than it should be and the only information on setting the gap I can find is for a different points set up, shouldn't be a problem, theres a ton of info out there. I'm pretty happy to have her running well again, now I'm not touching a thing.

Now I get the point

It was a cold but sunny day, the first rain free days in weeks, So I chanced a ride to see how the minor adjusting went, quick answer is, a mixed result.
It burst into life on the fourth kick only to die and not start again, I went through the usual things and eventually got it running, I rode to the end of the drive and onto the road, up the hill, She went well, felt better, so I decided it would be ok to head into town and knock out a few kms. I avoided any traffic lights that involved stopping for a while as I still had to have the throttle slightly cracked to keep it going, after about 30kms I decided to head home, I got to the bottom of theis big hill and she just died, I gave it a couple of kicks to no avail and thought pushing it home from here is really going to suck, about 2kms all up hill, I decided to give it one last try and pushed it halfway up the hill in front of me and turned around and bump started it, it clicked along burping for about 50 metres before it finally started, I headed straight home, but it ran so well I decided to go back into town for a bit longer, such a waste of a nice day, foolish decision? maybe, but it paid off and I did another 20 kms and rode home with no further problems.
Once home I just let it sit over lunch and went to put it away, I tried to kick it to see if it would start, second kick, wow and then it died not to be started, I got her back into the workshop and began pulling the cowls off to have a look, a scooter aficionado, Kelvin, Kickstart Scooters in Brisbane suggested I check the points, the only thing I haven't checked in all this and his advice has gotten me out of trouble a few times over the course of all this, I had trouble seeing them gap in the dimly lit workshop  so I pulled off the flywheel.....Bingo the points were pitted slightly and a teeny piece had dislodged and stuck to the opposite point, meaning they weren't disengaging properly when the flywheel came around, I was surprised it worked at all, So I proceeded to clean them up with some fine wet and dry until they looked ok, I will replace them when I get a chance, but they will still do the job in the mean time, now to wait until the next sunny day to see.....

rain rain

I was still having starting issues and decided to give the carb a good and proper clean out this time, I didn't find anything in the process, I changed out the gasket from in between the airbox and carb , threw in a different needle, I soaked it and blew it through with carb cleaner but I'm not convinced that the cab is the culprit, I did find that the plug gap was well above what it should have been, so I sorted that and put it all back together, I couldn't do any more than this as the persistent rain meant that going for a ride wouldn't be much fun and gassing myself in the small workshop wasn't an option either, once the sun shines again I'll give it another run.
In the mean time I went and got my push bike out of the storage unit and began giving it some much needed love.

Almost right again

I gave the jets another clean and took it out yesterday for a quick run, she went pretty well and started second kick which surprised me, I ended up doing around 25kms and the only hiccup was when going around a corner and perhaps not selecting the right gear, giving it some out of the corner and a couple of times she complained a little by jumping and missing but would soon recover and away we'd go. I'm going to leave it alone now and see how it goes, I'll start riding into work again on the days the weather is favorable and take on the next problem as it arises.

cough splutter burp

I got to look into the starting and idling problems over the weekend, I have a good spark and I know the fuel is getting there as the plug is fouling, the idle is OK but just dies after a minute or two, unless I feather the throttle, I thought Id throw in the old idle jet from the smaller carb I had on it originally, It did idle better and longer but still died. I went for a short ride up the road and she began to stutter and died, I got a few bursts of life trying to get going again, but I eventually rolled/pushed it back the 500m back home, it was for this reason I decided to go up the hill and not down it.
I got back to the shed and decided to give her a birthday since I was most likely going to pull the carb out anyway, I changed the gear oil, I checked and cleaned the plug, it was a little browner than it was after the plug chop, but I did notice that the little nipple on the end was loose? a possible cause? I re-torqued the cylinder head nuts too, which did seem a little loose to me, there was a small leak at the base of the head, another likely cause of the starting problem, low compression.
I disconnected the carb and pulled it down, I found no obvious blockages, there was some crap below the filter screen though, I blew out all the jets and holes as best I could and put it all back together. I did the same run up the hill and it ran a little better, still feels like there is a fuel delivery issue, just seemed to miss every now and then and the acceleration was lacking towards the top of the range 80kmph and up, getting to eighty wasn't a problem, she pulled hard through the gears. I got back and the first thing I did was pull the plug, it was clean as a whistle, it's a new plug, this worries me a bit that I might be a bit lean It still wont idle for long so I set about adjusting the throttle cable nipple along about 3-4mm to open the slide just a small bit at idle and give me some room for idle adjustment, this seemed to work and the idle problem seemed done with. I ran out of daylight so decided to call it a day until the morning.
I checked the weather and decided to ride the Sprint to work, it started after four kicks, OK since it was a cold frosty morning, idle was a tad fast but I would adjust that when the engine was warm. I rode out and down toward town, same running issues as yesterday, so I turned around in case she died and I didn't feel like pushing it home up the hill first thing Monday morning, It didn't stop but I had to keep the revs up and the clutch grabbing to turn around, I lifted the front wheel twice turning around, once home I shut it off and will look at it when I get home, I then proceeded to start the GT200 take off and perform a rear wheel spin 180 degrees and layed it down on the cold wet soft ground.....no harm done but would've looked pretty funny, note to self. Don't give it too much on the wet grass until you get going....

Bit quiet

Sorry, just haven't had the time or the weather to do anything of late, I pulled and cleaned out the jets, tidied up the plug, I have gone back to reset the carb, now I just need to get a short ride in to warm it up and fine tune it, I want to sort the idle issue out, got a good spark and fuel supply is good.
Will get to it in the next few days, I want to take it down to the club meet in Geelong in a couple of weeks, give it a good hit out.

Another milestone problem.

It was a good weekend for riding, cold but dry, I did another fuel usage test and came out with 25.3 kms per litre, I also found out that my tank only holds about 6 litres? sure it should be 7.7, I almost ran out of juice, the level was about an inch above the bottom and when I topped up I put 5.5 in.
On the way home I have a reasonable hill long and continuous grade and I sat on 80 the whole way up, at the top I clutched in and cut the engine and pulled over to have a look at the plug, not as brown as normal, but more of a grey colour, dry and clean. This is where the problem started, I put the plug back in and kicked it into life, she's been a 2-3 kick start since being back in one piece, three this time from a hot start, odd. I had only 200 metres to home so I putted back, In the property I was down to second and just bleeping it to roll round to the shed, I noticed it was running rough.
This morning I must have kicked it 10 times before I got a response, another 3-4 before she started and there was something not right, like she was firing out of whack, mostly running OK but every so often it would skip and be a louder, I didn't have time to go any further into it because I had to leave for work. So I'll have a play when I get a chance, I think the cause may be from when I cut the engine I held the kill switch in for a bit and this may still be contacting while the vibration of the idle shakes the crap out of the bike. It's been running fine and this is the only thing that has been different.

The milestone was 5000kms on the clock, 600 on the new kit, I'm half expecting that she's angling to get back in the shed since it's getting colder, she's not a morning bike for sure.

Positives and Negatives

Another decent weekend of riding, 123 kms and a good chance to check the fuel consumption, I used 4.5 litres over the two days and an outcome of 27.2 km per litre seems ok to me. Still never really opened her up further than 80 on the clock, and about half throttle, riding was mostly around town with some open road stuff as well, a couple of hills. The power comparison to before the kit still surprises me, this brings the new kit kms up to approx. 445 and just shy of 4850kms in total.
I had noticed a rattle, or more of a vibration, and it was getting worse, I decided to go down to the lake to stretch my legs, check the tank and the time and I went to pull her up onto the stand and it was all over the place, I got down to see that on the left hand side the nuts holding the stand bracket on had vibrated loose and fallen off, the bracket was wedged in there behind the stand but as I was reaching the high end of the rev range on each gear she was screaming at me, I pulled the bracket and the bolts out and rode up to the local hardware, replaced the nuts and spring washers in the carpark, I needed the guy from the shop to hold the scooter for me to get the bolts in place and I was good to go, no more noise, it was nice.
Once home I topped up the fuel, checked the plug, it looked fine, and decided to do a quick nut and bolt check, I'm glad I did. All the hub and rim nuts were tight, but the back wheel had some play in it, I tried to get the pin out but the nut had turned enough that I had to break the pin off and tighten the nut slightly to get it out. Sheeesh......
I did the nut up with the strength of five men, well as tight as I could possibly do it, put the biggest split pin that I could fit in there, the one I had was taken out was only slightly smaller and will now do a check on it every time I get on it

So far so good.

Firstly here's the photo of the fuel cap screw that I butchered up out of a hex head bolt, the standard rubber handle screws nicely onto it, I have a couple of washers and a nut if I get into trouble with it.

Well the weekend bought much happiness and confidence is growing in my engine work. I had an hour or so spare both days and the autumn weather was perfect for a ride, over the two days I managed 100 kms, bringing the kms on the new cylinder up to just under 300kms, all the rattles are gone, except the ones that were there before the engine was dropped, I only pushed it to 80kmph max. but could feel that it had plenty left, the power at gear changes is surprising and I've found myself startled at times and have reminded myself to hang on a bit better. This morning I rode to the end of the driveway and when I got a break in traffic let out the clutch a little quick and I lifted the front wheel a few inches, never done that before.

There were no incidents apart from a few dodgy gear changes and coming around a corner and working up through the gears and it missed between 2nd and 3rd and the revs went through the roof, I pulled the clutch in to let it settle and out of the corner of my eye I saw something bouncing down the road alongside of me, this cant be good I though and pulled up, couldn't find anything amiss, until I took the engine side cowl off to see the little rubber grommet that fits into the flywheel was gone, I was relieved but wondered if it had of got jammed, just how much damage it might have done, I walked up the road and back looking for it and an old farmer pulls up in his ute.

"You right Mate, Broken down?"

"no" and I went on to explain what had happened

"She's a beauty, good luck" and off he drove.

I found it and put it back and off I went.

When I got home I have been in the habit of topping up the fuel just so I'm good to go and I did this when I got home Friday also, I was surprised at how much fuel I had used in only 100 kms or so, I put three litres in and ran out, it looked like it might take another litre to bring it back to roughly where it was, in saying that 25kms per litre is probably OK really, just surprised me.

I have two things in mind for the next ride, one is to try and do an accurate fuel consumption calculation, well as accurate as possible and a mini project of mounting my camera and filming some of the scenery about town with the subtle buzz of the engine in the background. should be fun.

Now the workshop is empty I'm looking for something to do.

The joy.

I rolled her out and gave her a kick or two and she jumped into life, the engine did have a better sound to it just idling away, I threw all the tools, cables and oil in, helmet on and I pulled the clutch in and got the sound you can hear in the short video, off I get and try to pin point it with no success, I took the gear selector cover off and it seemed to lose a little volume but was still pretty loud. I thought Id take it for a short run up the road and back anyway to see what happened.
Once out on the open road I took it up to 70kmph, through all the gears, the sound didn't change much at all. The gears themselves changed sharp and true with the new selector, a little stiffer but they felt good, despite the rattle noise, the clutch felt great, nice and firm but smooth and I also noticed the difference in how the bike felt on the road, I wouldn't have thought that the new mounts would make a difference but compared to the old ones I felt like I was floating along, it was great being out on the road again, I went back after about ten minutes and probably 3kms and that's when I took the video, the rattle was a little softer. Nervously I decided to just go out and ride and I'm glad I did.
I rode around the town for another 40 minutes, amounting to approx. 30kms in total, through the gears, through as many different rev ranges as possible, only took it to about 1/3 throttle, up some hills, I even stopped and let it idle, which is where I was having problems before, stopping the engine and kicking it again was also something that I couldn't do, this time around it wasn't a problem, the pull through the gears was very noticeable and the big thing was that after a while the clutch rattle got quieter too.
Some thinking and consulting with a few experienced friends, I believe that although I soaked the clutch plates, they were installed and sat idle for a few weeks, I also recall there being some sort of stick residue on the steel plates too, I tried a few things to get it off to no avail, these things combined may be causing the clutch to be a little sticky and after some riding with some oil flying around inside the gearbox eventually making its way into the plates and stopping the noise. It's a theory.
Now it's running, it's moved out to the other shed to keep the GT company and the workshop is quite lonely, luckily I have my new, well 1974 new, set of Sprint V cases as a project/spare engine to get moving on, first job is to remove the rusted exhaust bolt that has snapped off out, then off to the soda blaster for a clean up. joy joy.

Getting there

The Easter long weekend brought a few things to light and to get the engine running right I reset the timing, it was out a fair bit, probably on 13 or 14 degrees BTDC, It should be on 19. Compression was good at 120psi. I was fouling plugs and the timing may have been causing this but I'm not sure, I did notice when I re-set the carb that when I wound out the idle screw the slide wasn't closing, I had attached the throttle cable nipple where I had it before, and what I think was happening was the throttle might have been slightly cracked at idle and this was what was causing the plug to foul. There was a lot more smoke than normal, and it was noticeably bluer than it had ever blown before the rebuild, but thinking about it, it was in the workshop and it is burning the mineral oil, probably normal really.
Due to family visiting for Easter and the crappy weather I didn't go any further than around the the property, the clutch feels nice and smooth but I won't pass judgement until I get out on the road.
I also managed to half drop the scooter onto a rusty old piece of machinery while fiddling with the stand and scratched the rear of the engine side cowl and bent the number plate as well, also while fueling up I took the last bit of usable life out of the thread on the screw down handle for the fuel cap, so that will need to be replaced before I take to the open road....
I have photos but have left the cord at home. I'll post them tomorrow.
And here they are.
Pic one and two. First up I noticed a fairly big leak onto the case below the cylinder at the exhaust, when I pulled off the exhaust I found the cause, the split in the sleeve to allow the fasteners to squeeze it tight had an opening, I had never noticed this before as it didn't leak like this before, I cut the weld that fixed the collar and slid it down the 3mm it need to and did my best with some thinly cut gasket paper to minimise the crap coming out and the air getting back in.

Third, is the scratch, bit annoyed about it but I'll touch it up anyway.

Fourth. my new timing marks, you can see what might be the previous owners marks or just dents, there were other marks on the case near the stator as well.

Last is the fuel cap securing bolt, worn to less than an inch of it's usefulness, I took it to my trusty industrial supplies shop to no avail, so as a temporary fix until I get enough stuff on a list to place an order, I am having a crack at making one from a small bolt, looks like it might even work if I can get the hole drilled in the right spot.

4 kicks.

After getting a new globe for the work light, and proceeding to set it up, have it slip fall and break, I thought I was in for another run of frustrating events....I set the gear selector up, exhast on, oil and fuel in, cooling shroud and covers on, choke out, fuel on. kick kick kick splutter kick boom into life, all I needed to do was adjust the idle and I let her run for ten minutes, the rattle I has at idle was almost gone but sounded more normal. I sat outside on my Pa's stool and had a quiet ale in celebration, more so because I didn't want to kill myself from 2T smoke.
Below is a grainy, poor quality, low budget film of the scooter idling after about 5 minutes, I'll get a better one over the weekend, now to get the running in process started...again.

Virtue

Not a lot of progress thanks to the oh so very slightly frayed ends of the gear cables, a five minute job turned into an hour, I broke my work light which didn't help, the light from my phone didn't cut it. None of the bits wanted to play so I gave up after tossing the small spanner across the workshop. Daylight and a new light globe is the answer, so is a dob of solder. Patience is a virtue, so they say, "they" never owned a Vespa I'm guessing.
I got the wiring all connected, not a major component, but the new junction box was a pleasure to install, new screws with threaded inserts, not rounded out almost useless screws that after a lifetime of chewing at the plastic each time they were used, had rendered the lower half pretty much rubbish, a long time ago.

Own two feet.

I made some good progress last night, engine in, took some wrestling and half a dozen bits of wood, some swearing and eventually she gave in and just slid into place. The carb was connected next, torqued down, fuel, choke and throttle all back on, rear brakes and wheel and the rear shocker last before I ran out of patience and beer.
Cables tonight, wiring and the flywheel, I might throw the oil in too and see if I get a leak overnight. It's quite satisfying given the amount of bits it was in a week ago.

Moving forward

I finally got the seal to fit, it was a bee's dick too big on the outer diametre, some "shaping" took the 1mm required off and she was snug snug ready to go, the case went together a treat and in no time I had the selector box on, the top end on and everything torqued down. I ran out of time but got the stator, the junction box and the spark plug lead in place as well. The next step will be put the engine back in the scooter and get the carb and air box on, connect all the cables and wiring, oil fuel and kick. A couple of days yet but it's been baby steps anyway.

The photos show various stages once I got the cases together, my one concern is the top of the third port, one side is a bit beaten up but shouldn't be a problem I have done all I can do to ensure I get a good seal. The crank turns but the sealed bearings did have a slight bit of resistance to them compared to the roller bearings and you can feel it with the crank turning.

If all goes to poo, all is not lost, I have a set of Veloce cases arriving this week so if there are any dramas, I'll use them.

Life Line

A series of events has put me in a position to secure a matching set of Aussie delivered, I believe anyway, Sprint V engine cases, which I have jumped on. I think the best way to approach this windfall is to get the new cases cleaned up and as finances allow, I can slowly rebuild it with all new components and eventually drop it in the frame I have. after that I can get the other engine right as a spare or sell it off.
The current project will continue to plan and at the risk of upsetting the purists, I am quite enjoying the challenge of getting this going again just to see if I can. If not, all the good and usable parts will be shifted into the new cases and the leftovers can be placed into the box of things destined for retirement from active scootering, unless someone wants them of course.
A delay on the final seal has put progress on hold a couple of days, but I should get it today and then tonight the cases will go together, the top end and carb next and then the scooter re-assembly, a busy weekend with my Mum visiting for my second boy's 3rd birthday, and a Club event Sunday will delay the kick over until next week....unless I burn the midnight oil.

stone wall

Ok this oil seal problem is going to be a little more complex to rectify than I thought. I got in another flyside oil seal and it was the same as the one I ruined. a bit of tooing and froing, surfing the web, asking a few local experts, measuring and just thinking about it has lead me to ordering in a special seal from a performance motor bike shop in Brisbane. The Maz crank is for a P/PX which is fine since half of my case is suspected to be anyway, the trouble is that the Veloce flywheel side case half will accommodate the oil seal for a Veloce, 20 40 6 , but the actual seal is a couple of mm too small for the collar on the crank. The PX oil seal 24 35 6 fits the collar but is 5mm too small to fit into the steel seal holder.
My options are to use the old case half, don't really want to as I'd have to take the new bearing off and throw on a bush for the main caged needle bearing, use a different crank, straight out no, or get in a seal to fit, a quick google had me ordering an 24 40 7 oil seal it should work OK, I'll just need to round out the internal hole on the steel holder a mm or so to suit.
The positive side is I put the cases together last night as a dry run and everything sits well the crank turns smooth and feels solid. I have rebuilt the clutch so I might get that in place over the weekend, I can put the stand back on and that's about it.
Some things are sent to test us.

Stop start stop.

With the new seal I had little trouble getting the crank in, crank out of the freezer, case and bearing warmed up with a heat gun, it was a snug fit but I could do it with my hands, happy with that. I went on to get the cases ready to put back together, all the gears and the kick start mechanism in, the fly seal in place, a light coating of loctite gasket sealer on both cases to be sure and the gasket in place, I was right to go so I heated the case just to assist and as I lightly tapped away I was getting excited but, why is there always a fking but....I'm not sure if it was my fault or whether it was the wrong size but the fly side oil seal rubber began to bulge out is it got close to home, WTF.
I took the cases apart to have a look and the little spring was damaged and the rubber had split. so after a quick measure up and a dry run with the seal alone, it appeared too small to go over the final collar of the crank shaft without damaging it??
Does the Malossi crank have a special size seal or did I just do the installation wrong, It might work better if I put the seal in place on the crank before I install the case?? SO it's back to the drawing board until I find out whats going on.
Tonight will be the clutch's turn for a re-build.

Idle Hands

I had the weekend to just potter, clean etc. So I took advantage of it and did some reading, luckily I did as I found out a better way to install the crank that I wouldn't have otherwise, I'll cover that in a later post when I actually do it.
The top photo is the new and old crank side by side, on the left is the old one, note bushing in the con rod small end and the nut in front of it was the nut securing the clutch onto the crank. On the right is the new crank, the special lock washer and castle nut that is supposed to secure the clutch on and just off you can see the caged needle bearing for the small end, this is what is supposed to be in the Veloce engine.
The next two shots are of the case after getting it soda blasted, it came up pretty good.
I thought I'd put the cases together to see who they mated, my heart sank when one of the studs was in the wrong spot, in the fourth photo you can see the three holes, the end one on the right is fine, the stud was in the one in the middle and should have been in the one on the left, thankfully all I had to do was use vice grips and brute force to undo it, clean out the other hole and screw it in. The funny thing id on the flat to the right of the right hand hole is a number stamp 464, the number stamped on the fly side case is down the bottom at the rear and in a different font, taller, and is 460, close but no cigar, even if the numbers matched the cases still wouldn't, but it would have been a coincidence.
In my boredom I replaced a few grommets and this one, pic. 5, was well needed, it is the plug that the pin on the right side engine cowl slots into so you can lock it in. I also replaced all the domed wheel nuts for standard stainless nuts with proper washers and spring washers that they didn't have before. piece of mind.
That seal might come today, tomorrow at the latest.

Delayed

I went to install the crank and bearings and realised that I need a different clutch side seal, since this clutch side has the oil seal on the crank side of the bearing and not the outside, it needs to have a bigger internal diametre, a brief exchange with a shop in Melbourne had me sorted with what is a p125 oil seal, unfortunately it won't arrive until next week now which leaves me with little to do over the weekend except probably throw the stand back on, tidy up the workshop and no doubt I'll find something else to do. oh well.
I did pick up the case I had soda blasted today, it came up pretty good too, I'll post a couple of pics probably tomorrow.

Ball is rolling.

I started putting the engine back together last night, the mounts were in, I got my main bearings yesterday, pic three next to the one that came out, this is still in good condition so will do as a spare for now, the clutch side went in OK, nice and tight, no case heating required, I used the old bearing from the Veloce case I got from the US as a drift and five minutes of tapping with a rubber mallet had the bearing home and the securing circlips in place. I fit the lay shaft and Christmas tree, needle bearings etc, also put the main shaft/axle in also, the selector rod and cruciform, after the photos I continued to put the gears back on and that was about it for the night, I have a package at home and should get the last one tomorrow.
The top two photos are of the US case, I cleaned it up a little but as you can see the orange paint might look good on the right scooter, just not mine. hopefully that's blasted and cleaned soon too. An interesting point is in picture 2 is the little steel spring flap that is riveted where the spring for the kick start gear would normally sit, I get the theory of it, the spring can be troublesome when trying to join the cases back together, I'll see how it goes.