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.