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.