Wobble

The rear wheel has been coming loose this year, I have been tightening it as it does. The splines on the driveshaft are worn out and finally got to the point to where it needs to be replaced.

So the scooter is now back in Petaluma, waiting for a new driveshaft and rear hub to make it ridable again. Hope to have it back together in a couple weeks.

Running Smooth

So, been riding the scooter for the last week and a half with no problems. I have been riding to work every day with an occasional ride into the headlands and one up Mt Tam.

I put a picnic basket which I found at a yard sale for $5 on the back rack as a place to carry stuff besides using straps, bags and hooks.

Here it is parked at work with the new basket.

Eventually I will put a spare tire in the mount on the rack.

Updates

So it has been a while since my last update. I've been busy with rallies, job layoff and search, moving 2 times and fixing the scooter.

Here is what has happened since my last posting:

In March is when I figured out that the Novato School District was definitely going to lay me off, though I had not received notice, my position was the number 1 item on the budget cuts list.

Went to the High Rollers Rally in Los Vegas mid March. Had a good time went on every ride.

Did the evening Vegas Strip, Red Rocks park, the long ride to Pioneer Saloon and the Hoover Dam rides.

On the Pioneer Saloon ride, my rear tire lost traction on a right hand turn and I dumped the scooter. Scooter has a few scratches, my helmet and jacket protected me well, but my right knee was skinned up. The fall tore a hole in my jeans at the knee, then my knee played with the asphalt as I tumbled. The other riders stopped to look after me and after about 10 minutes on the side of the road drinking water and calming down, I got back on the scooter and rode to the next stop which was a bar/restaurant. There I went in to the bathroom, washed off my knee, then used my first aid kit to bandage it. It still did not hurt at this time. That came later.

On my return trip to Novato, I drove through Death Valley, with the scooter on a trailer, and up 395 to Reno, then taking I-80 back home.

A couple of weekends later I went to San Luis Obispio for the Rides of March Rally. This rally had a few nice rides through the area with no real destinations. The ride on Saturday was well managed, with the Vampires MC club helping manage traffic. At one point the ride was a steady mile long group of scooters. That is until the CHP and Sherriff's department stopped everyone and told us we need to obey all the traffic rules and not block traffic. Sunday's ride was also good, with a great BBQ picnic afterwards.

The weekend after SLO, I took the scooter on a backroads trip west of Petaluma. The engine was acting up, but I was not sure what was happening. Then it seized, locking the rear wheel. I was able to grab the clutch very quickly and move over to the shoulder of the road. This happened right after cresting a large hill so I coasted down the hill, then bumped the engine with the clutch which freed the stuck piston. I rode the remaining 2 miles slowly on the shoulder, babying the engine.

The next weekend I took off the engine and dissembled the head, cylinder and piston. On advice from the ScooterBBS, I soaked the cylinder in muratic acid to remove the aluminum from the piston stuck to the inside of the cylinder. Disassembly also showed a couple other problems. I had the 2nd gear in backwards and the timing was advanced about 10 degrees more that it should of been. Also, I had been getting 90 psi on compression tests, but several people on the ScooterBBS said I should be getting more.

I held off getting new parts till the end of April, where I had found a new job in Sausalito. I moved from Novato to Sausalito to a great house share with a garage. But this turned out not to be, as the owner was having problems filling the house and a group approached her to rent the whole house for a home for DD adults.

I got a new piston and rings, but broke one of the rings trying to install it. The shop that sells the kit did not have spare rings, so I had to buy another piston and ring set. I get it installed and the scooter runs, but still with 90 psi compression. I ride it around a little, but start getting stalling from throttling up from idle. It is suggested on the BBS I have a clutch side seal leak, so I get a new seal. Still have the same problem, stalling and 90 psi compression. So I order a new crank and seal, get the seal in properly, still the compression problem. I get rings to fit my old piston and try reinstalling my old cylinder, piston and head, even lower compression. All this is over the course of several weekends plus 1 weekend where I moved to my new place.

Then I put back on the new piston, cylinder and head, now I am getting 125 psi compression. I really did nothing different, but I am leaving this for now since it is working.

I test drive the scooter, it runs better, but all of a sudden I get random high revs from the engine. This is usually an indicator of an air leak around the carburetor. I took off the carb, used gasket sealer around the base and reinstall it. The scooter runs fine and I am able to figure out the proper sized jet for the carb. I take the scooter to Sausalito and to work. That afternoon I go a short ride and the engine again starts revving high. I'm thinking I didn't do the gasket right so I redo it and it seems to be running fine.

So then I take my scooter to the Amerivespa Rally in Los Gatos. I take it out for a test drive and get the high revs again. So I get a different gasket material and this seems to do the trick. I don't do any of the long rides as I am worried about the scooter breaking down again. Speaking with several vintage scooter experts, I find out not to use gasket sealer on the carb, but use grease as the paper gasket swells in contact with oil and gasoline. The day after the rally I try to ride the scooter to work, but get the high rev problem again right away. So I got some new gaskets and some grease, cleaned the carb and carb box mating surfaces and install the gaskets using only bearing grease. I took the scooter out on a test drive and it is running well again.

But as I was heading back home, one of the pinch bolts on the gear cables slips and I have no transmission control. The pinch bolt, which had been on since the original rebuild, was no longer grabbing the cable and the cable was stuck in the housing. So I walked a mile home, got the car and went in to SF to get a new cable and pinch bolts. But the cable I got was not the right one, I thought the clutch cable had the same end as the gear cables, but the gear cable stops are smaller. While sitting at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, I put in that cable anyway, getting the end wedged in so it would not slip and drove the scooter home. Then I drove back to the scooter shop and got the correct cables along with new housing since the old ones were probably the originals, dried out and brittle.

So the next day I go and get some heat shrink tubing and stuff the two housings through it then I installed the housing, using the old one to pull the new ones through the frame. Hook up the new cables, get them set properly, then I go off for a test drive. One of the cables must of not been seated properly in the headset, because after climbing Hawk Hill, the transmission became sloppy. I rode down to a picnic table near the GGNRA welcome center and tighened up the cables again. After riding 15 miles and then to work the next day everything seems to be working properly, but time will tell.

Lamp Collection

I have been collecting some driving and fog lamps over the last few months which I intend to mount them a few at a time on my scooter. I finally got around to photographing them all.

Here are some pictures of the lamps

Lamps

and a mini slide show

Clutch, Cables and Carburetor

I got the new clutch plates in along with a new pressure plate, brass push and 2 new clutch inner cables. While soaking the cork plates in oil, I took out the clutch and took it apart. Then I worked on replacing cables and cable housings.

I first worked on the clutch cable, taking out the old inner and threading through a new inner. Then I took the new inner and threaded it through the new outer cable housing. I took the two loose ends and taped them together with electrical tape. Then up pulled the old cable out which pulled the new one in to place. The cable was tight in the headlight housing, so I used a screwdriver as a 2 toothed gear to help it along. Once the new cable was in place, I separated the 2 cables then threaded new clutch inner cable through the new housing the right direction and replaced the clutch lever.

Then I replaced the speedometer cable. The old cable was wrapped with electrical tape on the bottom half where it came out of the front fork. Speedometers run off a gear on the front wheel on the older Vespas. I could not use the same technique as the clutch cable since the speedo cable housings have threaded end caps that would not feed through the fork. So I removed the inner speedo cable from the housing, then fed a old clutch cable up through the old housing. Then I pulled the old housing out through the headset, leaving the inner cable in place. I threaded the new housing over the inner cable and put a cable stop on the end to keep the housing from sliding off. I pulled on the inner cable from the bottom, but it was being stubborn going through the hole in the fork. I pulled the housing back out, greased the end then pulled it through the hole using pliers for an extra grip on the inner cable. I removed the nipple, ring and gear from the front axle, put in a new brass gear, then cleaned, greased and replaced the ring and nipple. Then I fed the new speed cable through the housing and connected it on both ends. Hopefully that will take care of the bouncing speedo needle.

Next I replaced the front brake cable, housing and lever using the same technique as the clutch cable. Fortunately it fed through the frame and head light housing easier than the clutch cable housing.

I figured that 5 hours was long enough for the clutch corks to soak, I reassembled the clutch and put it back in. The woodruff key kept moving on me so I hit it with a punch a couple time to help snug it in to the slot on the crankshaft. Then the clutch went on ok, followed by the cover and the rear wheel. I then called it a day.

On Sunday, I started on adjusting the clutch cable and rear brake cable. On the test drive the clutch seemed to be working properly.

Next, I worked on finding the right main jets to use in the carburetor. I had a 93, 109, 110, 112 and 116. The 93 was already in the carb, the rest I bought in San Francisco. After much experimentation, the 109 and higher tended to flood the engine at higher rpms, but the 93 seems to run ok. Though this is probably too lean for the engine. So I ordered a range of main jets from 95 to 107 to experiment with when they arrive.

I cleaned up the scooter and the shop and then went home for the evening.

Electrical and Clutch

The weekend of the 6th I worked on the electrical and clutch.

I hooked up all the wiring as it was listed for the new electronic stator and after some fiddling got all the lights working. Then I worked on the timing. The timing was not coming in right, so I had to drill the stator for wider mounting holes. I decided to get an electrical coupler to make the removal of the stator easier, since the wires had to be fed through a long hole to a junction box on the outside of the engine. A very narrow and difficult to feed hole. When adjusting the stator on this type of vespa, you have to put the flywheel on to check the timing with a timing light. I probably took the flywheel off 10 times before I got the timing right.

Then I worked on the clutch. At first the scooter was running fine, but the clutch started to loose its ability to de-clutch with out it be very tight. So I took off the clutch and discovered the brass clutch push had been worn down by a rough clutch pressure plate. So I put in the old plate and push, but I also looked at the clutch plates. When stacked up they were thicker than the standard plates. So I decided I would order new clutch plates of the original style.

All back together

So the engine is all back together now.

I haven't as been good at posting the last few weeks, lots of stress at work.

Here is a recap of the last few weeks.

I got all the parts I ordered and started putting the engine back together. This took about 6 hours over 2 days. Unfortunately I damaged the clutch side seal trying to use a crank puller that was designed for other models. So I had to wait till the next weekend after a bought a new seal to complete the assembly.

The following weekend I put the seal in and got the clutch in, but the clutch did not fit right. I put the number of clutch plates as in the parts layout. But the kit I got was different, so after figuring out the clutch was not fitting properly, I took it back out and added the extra plate and cork and the unit fit properly back in.

I put on the new piston, cylinder and head, then put on the new stator and flywheel. Getting the wires through the case was problematic, but eventually I got them through.

Then I started to put the engine back in the frame. The person who was going to help was sick so I had to put in by my self. After a few attempts and bloody scratches, accidently pushed the frame over. I decided to leave it on its side and was able to put the engine in much easier.

Once the engine was in, I stopped for the weekend.

The next weekend I worked on the wiring, since with the new stator, the wiring was a little different. I got the wiring to a point where I thought I could start the scooter. I put the gas tank back on and took the scooter outside and put some gas in it. I opened the fuel valve and pulled out the choke. There was a gas leak around the carburetor, it turned out to be a missing gasket on one of the screws.

After the leak was taken care of, the gas back on, I kicked it over. Then again and it started up. Second kick start, I was overjoyed. Happy dance!

After a little celebration, I got out the timing light to check the timing. It showed the timing was at about 12 TDC not the recommended 22. So back to the workshop, remove the flywheel and I adjusted the stator as far as it would go, but it did not make 22 BTDC. I put the flywheel back on and started the scooter, this time it was at about 17 BTDC. So back to the shop, I removed the flywheel then I removed the stator and drilled holes where 22 BTDC should be. I put the stator back on, again having to feed the wires that barely fit through the engine case and hooked up the wiring. Since it was raining I decided to work on the brake switch. The switch needed to be swapped out with a new one for the new stator arrangement and this proved to be a bigger project than I thought it would be. I ended up also replacing the brake cable and housing. This took about 2 hours.

After that there was a lull in the rain, so I took the scooter back outside and started it up. But with the muddy ground and the chance of rain starting back up, I decided to wait until the next weekend to check the timing on the new stator setup.

So put the scooter back inside and cleaned up the shop before heading home.