Off the clock.

On the way to work yesterday I went the long way as usual, forest st is one long straight, flat road, 80 speed limit, it was quite cool so I thought it was time to push Gloria to the limit. Hand on the clutch just in case and to my surprise I got it up to the 110 mark with still some to go, I went WOT and the needle crept up until it couldn't go any further, I was a little nervous, but couldn't stop smiling, bowing just need to GPS it and see exactly how fast that is.
The pics are the rear brake cleaned up, the Femsa switch is far more sturdier than what's on the Sprint, the stator could probably do with a re-wire, the points look close to new, I've put the word out for advice on the wiring, it's probably going to be the biggest challenge, at least when I made the loom for the sprint , I had the old one to use as a guide.

Back to business

So it got the better of me, staring at me on the bench begging me to pull it apart, sorry Anthony, So I did just that. I didn't find anything untoward, just coated in old tacky oil, the rotary pad is good, the bearings cleaned up OK, the gears were fine, the shaft where the gears sit needs a clean up, I knew that there was a spring and bearings holding the shift dog on, came off OK, not sure how I'm going to get them back in though. The bottom photo is of the needle bearings from the front end, it was chockers with grease so I soaked it in fuel for two days and this is what I found in there, the housings are proving to be a bitch to get out too, bit more penetrate and patience required here. I spent the rest of the weekend, in the spare time I had, cleaning all the components, I'll replace all the hardware as some of it is rusted up and different sizes. I have found another small hairline crack on the case, that's three repairs required. The clutch corks were all but worn down to nothing and were black, the steels are OK and just need a clean up. The tank is fine too, the handles a little tight but I'll sort that when the rubber bits arrive.
So other than a bit of tinkering and cleaning I'm back to waiting for parts to arrive for both engines, I'm going to start nutting out the wiring and try to get that loom made up, the body, seat, headset and painted parts will be taken off to be cleaned up and painted. I'll get onto tyres and other bits as I think of them.

Australia Day

For many Australians it's about celebrating our lucky country, a few beers with friends and family, a BBQ, backyard cricket, this year for me it was about leaving home in the dark to ride the 100kms to Ballarat, through grazing country, sown crops an amazing golden hue, flocks of sheep, quiet towns, I had the road to myself and the rising sun to my right left a smile on my face. Once fueled up, me and the scooter, I arrived and began to load the scoot on a trailer with an apple green 150 Super with a P engine, I had been invited to join a fellow scooterist and his partner on one of Melbourne's scooter scenes annual event hosted by Scooterhead SC, its a geared and classic scooter event only and is open to all. We parked in a quiet Williamstown street and after I finally got going, the trailer ends up flooding the engine by bumping about, rode through the city, an unusual event for me but I found it a great experience, there ended up being 17 scoots and about 25 people, we met in a Collingwood cafe and after the usual coffee and chatter we rode out through the Dandenongs to a little pub near Belgrave, there is something ironicly soothing about riding the twisties through old growth forest on both sides, through little arty villages, all in the while burning 2T oil, I've ridden with a few scoots before but never this many two stroke machines, aaaahhhh the sweet sweet smell.
After lunch we rode back though town, trailered up and my hosts were kind enough to drop me in Geelong and I buzzed the quiet Cape Otway Rd home, tired and saddle sore, the entire day was 330kms. My fuel usage was 26 km per litre.
The rest of the weekend was based around cleaning the Smallie's parts, I'll cover that another time.

Front end

The first photo is all that was left of the top fork bearings, the lower race had no ball bearings at all. All the o-rings were beyond perished, the speedo cable had snapped off at the gear, which is still ok, it took some tough love to get the lower front shock to let the front end unit free. Now I have to figure out how to get the clutch assembly off with out a puller? I'm enjoying this.

And this is what the grey crap was hiding, A hairline crack just to the right of the nut, it would have been leaking oil, a lazy repair.

Ticking over

What else can I say.

Extra pics.

aaaahhhh isn't it cute. Next to my new P200E piston.

Just needs a tidy up, hopefully.

a common theme is this oily film

Need to find a headlight surround for this, I reckon it could be hard to get.

If you happen to have one that will fit this model let me know.

Delving further.

The news is more good than bad, the carb was full of oil or something that used to be oil, had a funky smell as well. When I dismantled it, it was fine, the gaskets and o-rings need replacing, the needle and mix screws tips are worn as well.
The air box was next to spotless.
The previous owner thought it would be a great idea to cut the wiring from the frame, the upside was he had the sense to leave the colours in the various components which will make wiring it up easier. Lastly the horn was held in place by some pliable stiffer bluetac type material.
More to come.

Goop and off with your head.

 

Here's a snap of the goop, applied with all the love possible.

Ok I just couldn't help myself, I pulled the head off to reveal, in my limited experience, a near on pristine cylinder, you could still kind of see the machining lines from boring, Possible its had a rebore or even a hone, I don't really know, but I did promise the owner I wouldn't go as far as this until this afternoon when he stops by to inspect the bits and we'll split the cases......sorry Anthony.

What a mess!

With the smally in the shop, I wasted little time dropping the engine and begin the task of removing what was in places over an inch thick of greasy mud, took longer than I thought. Scraping and eventually getting it clean enough to pressure wash it, it camp up pretty good. There's some kind of either repair job at the base, someone's been fairly liberal with some kind of putty that has set hard, I suspect it was to stop an oil leak and nothing too serious. The kick start was broken clean in half and was being held in place by the fact the case moulding wouldn't allow it to fall out. The funny thing is the first thing we did when we unloaded it was do a compression test, bloody near on 150, the Sprint only comes in at around 115-120, so that's encouraging. I'll get some more pics through later. Sadly there is one medium sized mean looking spider now in the market for real estate.

Bearing puller

I installed the crank shaft after a bit of swapping and changing some washers to get the configuration right, I used the inner race of an old bearing against the new bearing, a couple of small washers to clear the Cush drive, a big washer on each end of the piece of pipe, a smaller washer for the nut to turn against. Same size bolt with two nuts welded together and presto the crank is home an spinning freely against the repaired rotary pad, courtesy of Hotrod Al in the US. I'm almost at a stand still while I wait for the gears and clutch arm. The small frame engine will keep me busy. The scooter is a 1978 Spanish built 75cc Motovespa. Not sure how many of these are about here in Australia.

A different animal

The new project is a go-er, back story is the guy who I got the parts for the P200E engine, Mark Carter of Carters Classic Scooters, sent me a message a week ago because he saw that someone had put a smallie on eBay that was in the town I live in. So I gave him a call a couple of days later, not to buy the scoot, but to see if he would be interested in trying to get the thing running, with the idea in the back of my mind that once it was going he could get a better price for it or.... or keep it and fall in love with it, ending up a Vespa nutter like me, also someone nearby to talk Vespa stuff with, tinkering and riding and all that. He was kinda keen, but time was the problem, we are all busy, I rode out and had a look at it, the engine turned when kicked and looked to be all there, we chatted a while and I headed home, the scooter was to be dropped off tomorrow for a clean up and to try and get it going. Should be a heap of fun.
It was the annual classic and custom car show in town today so I did two drive bys the first was for a look, the second was carrying a box of beer to show off, I have the wannabe bikies milling around on the footpath outside the pub a toot as I zipped past. Always get a kick out of doing that.

Friday night

Near perfect night tinkering. My homemade crank puller needs some refining, I got some graphics for the side cowl, not 100% sold on it just yet. Didn't get much done except listening to some tunes and a few beers.
Stand by for a potential side project.

More

This is the special plug to seal off the auto lube.

That's it there to the left of the domed nut, for those that didn't know.

I was advised to loctite it in, I grabbed and almost used the bottle on the right, luckily I snapped out of the daydream....it's superglue.

I realised that I forgot to put the spring on the brake cam.

Layshaft installed.

Next on the list is the air box and carb, axle, clutch assembly and crank. getting to the important stuff now, looking forward to it too.

Next

Clutch built.

When I heated the case to put the main bearing in I forgot about the oil splash, it got a bit of heat damage but nothing too serious.

Brake cam fitted

Old rubber mount out.

New Clauss Studio mounts in.

 

Tonight I plan to fit the bearing into the cush drive and get that in, not really sure what else but I'll see how I go.