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3000 miles f London potholes. There has been a certain amount of rattling coming from the front end recently. This evening I noticed that there was a certain amount of play in the handlebars, about a quarter of an inch, side to side, ie. the handlebars will move that far without moving the wheels. there is also a little up and down movement.

Is it just going to be a question of a socket set and a tighten up or.............?

Fay
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Re: He ain't notchy, he gone sloppy!
Fay Presto wrote:
3000 miles f London potholes. There has been a certain amount of rattling coming from the front end recently. This evening I noticed that there was a certain amount of play in the handlebars, about a quarter of an inch, side to side, ie. the handlebars will move that far without moving the wheels. there is also a little up and down movement.

Is it just going to be a question of a socket set and a tighten up or.............?

Fay
do you mean the whole front goes side ways when its in locked position?

i did have movement in the lock system 5cm to the left and 5 cm to the right it was the brakepad on the lock system that was missing 3 of the four screws and the rattling sound could be the heatshield under your feet between the fueltank and engine
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You just need to tighten your handle bars.

Wayne B
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No, not the lock, it's wiggle in the bar itself, it feels detached...ever so slightly... from the scoot itself. Tomorrow the trim panel comes off and the nut gets attacked!
fay.
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Make sure you don't over tighten, the steering tube is hollow and can be crushed.

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Sounds like you just need to nip up the locking rings on the centre steering tube. They take no force from the suspension, only from the rider's hand pressure on them, so can be nipped up (with a drift is easiest) for no free play very easily, with no strange incantations needed. Just a bit of a bugger getting at them quickly.
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AAHH, I didn't read to the end "there is also a little up and down movement. "

You are right again Jim

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jimc wrote:
Sounds like you just need to nip up the locking rings on the centre steering tube. They take no force from the suspension, only from the rider's hand pressure on them, so can be nipped up (with a drift is easiest) for no free play very easily, with no strange incantations needed. Just a bit of a bugger getting at them quickly.
Woops! That sounds a little worrying, not just take off the sliver plastic trim, stick a socket on a nut and tighten it up then. Time to look at 'whatmeworry'

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It'll be handlebars-off time I'm afraid. Total time at a dealer shouldn't be more than half-an-hour, so you might want to do that rather than phaff about in chilly wind and drizzle.
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I have a lock up...........
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You're all set then. A pint of tea and the right tools (including a 3mm diameter drift and a hammer) and the job's a good 'un.

Plastics off the handlebars.
Undo the cinch bolt on the steering tube.
Carefully take off (the cables etc will be a pain) the bars from the steering tube.

Now lift the front of the bike up with either a tool for the job or a couple of bottle jacks, so that the wheels just kiss the ground.

Take off anything else which covers the locking rings (I forget what they might be) and drift up the lower ring so that when feeling the wheels there is no play from side to side or up and down, but they are still 'free'.

Drift the upper ring tight enough not to vibrate free. Note this will add to the compression of the lower ring, so double check all is still 'free' but no slop discerned.

Replace handlebars and cinch up - and check the bars *will* just move if a theft attempt is made - and replace plastics.

Remember the cold tea and throw it away. Razz emoticon
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Had to have tighten the little bugger myself several times. Last time I dropped a tad of Red Locktite on it, no problem any more. Just make sure you never use Green Locktite.
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For the sake of completeness.

following the helpful suggestions above I was a bit nervous about tackling this, so went to a 'helpful' workshop I have used before with an offer of £££ notes. He removed the silver cover and peered down into the guts of the steering stuff. Much sucking of teeth and intaking of breath. That means,'You got no chance.@

"Can't do it now, long job going to have to take all sorts of bits off, wouldn't ride it far if I were you.'

Faced with a rising tide of poorly paid work, 'go sees' and charity shows; needed that scoot! Went home and re-read Jimc words.


Nothing to lose and some daylight left; to the lock up.

Jacked up the front end, took the front plastic cover off the handlebars - two screws below each of the switches, one under each brake reservoir cover.
'Hang on a minute' I said to my self' having clipped it off, 'that looks like the castellated whatever you call 'ems the helpful (usually) mechanic showed me, and I can get at them with the drift. (old centre punch) without removing anything else.

Knocked them around a bit one way then the other, not a lot seemed to have changed, still a lot of slack.

Had a look at the bottom of the steering column. That end was wobbling about too. Wedged the sharp end of a wrecking bar between the 'L' shaped casting that turns the steering and the subframe underneath. Gentle leverage raised the steering column up inside the surrounding tube. Had another go at drifting the castellated thingys round.

They tightened down nicely, the slackness had gone! Put it all back together. Total job time 45 minutes.

Tea didn't even get cold. I rode round the block with the scooter going where I pointed it instead of wondering around like a lost soul.

Sorry no photographs it was getting late, dark, and I had no time.

Thank you Modern Vespa, and Piaggio Mp3 owners club.

Fay
⚠️ Last edited by Fay Presto on UTC; edited 1 time
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Fay Presto wrote:
For the sake of completeness.... ...Thank you Modern Vespa, and Piaggio Mp3 owners club.

Fay
Good show, Fay! Way to have at it! Loved the description too, all those interesting terms like drift, thingy and castellated... Razz emoticon

Bravo!
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Well done Fay, especially spotting that your tube had to be given a good prodding from underneath.
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pulling up an old thread here but this problem arose so tried this fix.

as you can see from the pic, I didn't need to take off the handle bars, just the plastic surround. a few questions:

1. surely the rings need to be drifted down, not up? i.e. I turned mine clockwise to tighten.
2. is jacking up the bike necessary?
3. how tight should the rings be?
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'Drift up' was meant to convey 'use a drift to tighten up'. IYSWIM...
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