Got me thinking....

I found out what went AWOL riding home, the bolt that holds the exhaust to the swing arm, this would also explain some of the rattling as well, On the last stretch up the hill from town to the driveway I touched on 80 again, speedo not actual, and I got a new type of vibration that I hadn't felt before, so I backed off and just cruised on home.
After I parked I began to think about the main bearing comments again and then sat down with a post ride ale and had a flick through the Haynes manual, suddenly it dawned on me. looking at all the exploded views the main bearings were quite obvious, then I got a slight sinking feeling, I didn't remember seeing a roller bearing, but I did see a caged needle bearing? I was focusing on the kickstart set up and getting that right.
I had a short discussion with the good wife and decided rather than stuffing up all the things I'd done, including the new kit, I'd at minimum split the cases and see what I had.
I was surprised at how efficiently I had the engine apart and the cases split, that bolt down the bottom got me again though....
And the winner is.

A needle bearing as a main bearing!!, I couldn't even begin to guess which model even had these to start with.

What to do? well I guess I had two or three choices, try and find a Veloce flyside case, or a sprint one and do some porting and welding work to get to match the three port cylinder, or a new set of engine cases all together.

A quick call to Vespa Wizard in Melbourne confirmed what I had already been told, rare as rocking horse poo, he did have a PX150 set that had been ported to fit a polini kit $300, bit more than I could afford, given the amount I had recently spent on the kit, but good to know that if I was stuck it was there.

I did the usual forum trawling and contacted my friend Porter G in the US to see if he knew of anyone that might have one, 5 minutes later I had a link to a guy that had just put one up for sale, a bit of email tennis and a day later and I have a Sprint V fly side case on it's way from the US at $76 AUD including shipping, happy with that.

I have decided to drop the engine and replace all the bearings and seals and have a general look see at everything else. The case could well take a few weeks so I'm in no rush, Time to get this scoot up to scratch once and for all.

First project- an engine stand.