Modern Vespa

Dang special orders. A'ight, I can grate some nutmeg....

Oh, BTW. Most important update: Still married! No, didn't roll the scooter into the living room, but as I had the exhaust off I decided it could really use a coat of paint, and had just purchased some VHT for the occasion...which, BTW, needs to be heat treated...and as I have a non-running scooter, thought best to throw it in the oven. Didn't smell all that great, and well, one of us has a sensitive nose.

Other news, the new water pump is now installed! Easy peasy compared to disassembly, though I nearly had an "issue" after bolting it together and forgetting to check for movement of the impeller. Fortunately loosening and retightening did the job.

So now it's attaching shocks, plugging in cables, etc. And the dreaded spark plug cap that never readily cooperates. I did throw in a new plug...probably not needed, but as I have a collection of spares and forgot to note when I DID change it last, why not. Then the cap can hopefully go untouched for the next 6K miles....

No rush from here on out as there's still snow on the road and I'll have to wait to (hopefully) get a ride in to see if the problem is solved.... at least I'm in familiar territory from here on out.

Last edited by fledermaus on Sat Dec 12, 2020 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Oh you must have one of those super smellers in your household! I have one of those so I feel your pain!!!

Umm, yeah. A bit of both. I blame Organic Chemistry for dulling mine....

Well, as far as the weekend goes, things got done. The patient is out of intensive care, just waiting for some infusions and a bit of miscellany, and we're ready to try it out.

All in all things went well, particularly on the reassembly side. I apparently didn't get the alignment quite right on the rotor shaft, and was a bit enthusiastic to get things together, so when I did remember to check it, it wouldn't budge. So, loosened everything up, which must have been enough for it to pop in. A bit of the usual uncertainty of getting wires back exactly as they were, but that's not critical. Thanks especially to greasy for the encouragement and technical help, and to the rest of the motley crew for encouragement, entertainment and cat banter.

We need to make sure the coolant/oil mixing problem is solved yet. Unfortunately it's turned to winter here and unless we get some melting, I'm not going anywhere.....

Now can we get back to cats?

I've been misquoted!!!

Okay, if I can get your attention back to my scooter, I was looking for "sacrificial" oil to run the scooter on to clear out residual mix and see if I was still contaminating with coolant. Got a great deal on MC oil, but it was 10W40 instead of 5W. I'm thinking not an issue for a few dozen miles, but thought I'd throw it out there in case I was missing something. It's going to get drained and tossed anyway.

Waiting for the expected warming trend to actually start and ride....

In the meantime, more cats!

Just a little update:

Flushed the coolant, put in some oil and fresh coolant, no leaks, so far so good. Started right up, which was a relief....part of me is always waiting for a new level of catastrophe (lotta confidence in my work, eh?)

Right around freezing, and with cold fingers managed to slice one a bit. bleeding a lot for a little nick...seems like it's not a thorough job if I don't manage to bleed. Warming up on Saturday, enough for a short 15 mile or so run, check the oil, and if it looks good, I'm done for the year!

BTW, used to use a small wrench on the coolant bleed nipple, and thanks to recent discussions on tightening, decided to use a socket and driver to tighten, which IMO gives a lot better control for light pressure than the wrench, especially if you just spin the shaft between your fingers. I'm sure the wrench is fine, but seems it's just too tempting to "snug it up" and get carried away.... Also, the last time I'd changed coolant, managed to lose the rubber cap on the nipple, and found the hardware store has nice little vinyl caps that are cheap and fit pretty well....besides coming in red!

Christening your wrenching with a drop of blood for good measure, a great way to finish off your repair fledermaus. It sounds like there maybe be more than your bleed nipple cap coloured red

Yeah, like my cat! I let him wander around outside while I was doing stuff, got some on his white fur when I picked him up to put him in. Lucky I didn't touch him during the worst of it.

Besides the christening, the other plus is that it's my middle finger, so I can happily show everyone my owie.

Well, I just did this some hours ago, but must have hit "just walk away" so it vaporized... so here we go...

Did a short ride yesterday of about 15 miles. Rare opportunity of fairly decent conditions with the roads melting off and above-freezing temps. There's a cheese factory nearby which I only recently discovered has a retail store. Best yet, the road to it has some of the best curves in the neighborhood. Little cemetery on the way as well....

Scooter ran fine, as it should have. Got home and put it up on the lift and drained the cheap oil for a look. Realized I'm not sure what to expect...oil looked a bit dirty for only having a few miles on it, but it's the first time I'd drained oil so soon.....at least it didn't look like cappuccino.

I was too lazy to put the left sided cowling and crash bar back before, so did that. It's always a PITA because the rear nut placement is pretty much 95% by feel, and seems to take a good half dozen attempts. One of my tricks is to use a plain socket with the nut...unfortunately this time I lost my grip and it went bouncing sans nut with a clunk in the bowels of the scooter. I spent a good period of time searching, probing with a magnet until I saw it wedged on the opposite side of the scooter.

Gave the girl a good bath to get the wet road grime and salt off and put her away for the winter.

So, not sure what to think about my success with the project. Is the appearance of the oil telling? Do I need more miles, or is there any non-visual way to assess the oil for contamination? Guessing when the riding season starts I'll at least keep on eye on the oil for appearance, though that's a bit challenging without draining it..... any thoughts are welcome.


Thumbs up, down, sideways?



"Cheese!!" (Mimicking Wallace...)

www.blackstone-labs.com

I actually did this once when I questioned whether coolant was getting into the oil. It cost a bit but was worth it for peace of mind.

Now that's enticing at the moment. I've been playing out this "more time than money" thing quite long enough. Of course I've got all winter to ponder it. As long as it's not in the triple digits, of course....

Not quite ready for the graveyard yet then?

Me, or the scooter?

Or both....there's a spot maybe a couple of miles from there where a guy is buried with his team of draft horses. I have so many questions....

You don't think I would have peace of mind with triple digits, do you? It was about $30.

Sheesh, peace of mind doesn't come cheaper than that these days! Which reminds me to ask if my wife's rapid COVID test yesterday cost anything....

So, every story has an ending, and just in case anyone is still losing sleep over this cliffhanger, I'll finish off this thread.

So, a bit of a recap-at the start of winter, I'd replaced the water pump, hoping, but not entirely sure that that was the culprit for the coolant in my oil. Winter intervened, and the only way to tell if I was successful was to run some clean oil in it and if all was good, drain once again and replace. I wasn't sure how far to go before checking...did a couple of dipstick checks (what alerted me in the first place) and ran a good hundred miles perhaps. Seemed time to check...so drained the oil, with a bit of trepidation, but it looked good! No cappuccino this time. So, AFAIK, I should be good to go. Thank God, I really didn't want to do a head gasket to round out my repertoire.

So thanks, all of you who chimed in, especially greasy and Stromrider whose wisdom I've come to trust.....

Well done.

I did head and base gaskets on my BV350 last year. It really wasn’t that bad, and was a great opportunity to reshim the valves.

Remember, there is nothing you can break that someone else can’t fix

Thanks. Besides solving the problem, it's given me the courage to think that I could do a deeper dive in the future. Maybe.

That's a good mantra...not that I want to go there. Wish things would go wrong on a more convenient schedule!

Home wrenching definitely follows the Peter Principle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle