A documentation of my experiences with an imported vintage 1971 Vespa Sprint Veloce
Sunday, May 27, 2012
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.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
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....
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....
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
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.
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.
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