Modern Vespa

Lye will also react with aluminum, but be careful with both muriatic acid or lye, both can react violently with certain metals like aluminum or chromium (chrome plating). They react very slowly with iron, so they'll be say to leave in the bore for minutes or hours, but don't leave it in for days or it will pit. Both work great for removing chrome plating, too.

Perfect, thanks!

Small parts you can dip into a container, larger parts you can wipe the solution on. Just be careful, read how to do it online, and dilute the lye/muriatic. Make sure to wear rubber gloves and goggles, and have some water (bucket or hose) or baking soda or mild alkali for muriaic or vinegar or other mild acid for lye. Lye usually comes as a powder/pellets and creates an exothermic reaction when mixed with water, so if you put it in too quickly it can cause the water to violently flash boil and spray liquid onto you. When you put the part into the liquid (lye or muriatic) or wipe the solution on, it can also react violently react and spray liquid onto you. If it gets on your skin either will cause painful burns, but can easily cause blindness or severe vision damage if it gets in your eye.

Ah yes, thanks! I knew that was around...

From Scooterotica.

Here's the full meal deal, what to do, where to get stuff & how to know what you did.
Thank you, gentlemen.

Can be challenging at first and that quickie drawing really is first class. Also noted, pull back the vapor collar if needed, then do as shown.

Found a wrench for 7/8mm cable adjustments on my p200e. It is very thin so you can tighten easily. Look for AMF 51391 Thin double open end metric wrench.

Me today -> The adjuster broke off in the cast lug on the front brake! What to do? No guarantees, but here's a way to get the broken piece out w/o buggering the threads if you don't have a tiny EZ-Out. If you grind a masonry nail to a sharp taper just bigger than the hole, you can hammer it in & unscrew the broken piece out.

You may need to sneak up on the taper & size, I went back to the grinder a couple of times making the taper longer & sharper. I ground it roughly triangular, but it's not fussy as long as you have some sharp edges to cut & grip. Grind 2 flats on the head as well to turn it - visegrips are useless on these.

Must be hardened alloy concrete or brick nails, normal nails won't do it. Grab a handful next time you're at the hardware store, they make dandy center punches and are good as small normal punches w/ the tip ground flat plus anytime you need something hard & strong.

^^ fcking pain in the arse when that happens, I guess we need to put a little copper grease on them to stop this from happening. used a similar method with a small screw driver.

I use an Allen Wrench and bang it in there.

I have a set of these screw extractors. The small one does the job perfectly.

OH thanks That's a good one and you gave me an idea.
Little screwdrivers can work on easy ones, but mine just started reaming the hole on this last one.
The screw extractors are nice and all my bigger ones are still unbroken.
They are really hard(brittle) and sometimes the little ones snap off when there's a problem or if you're clumsy.


But Torx drive bits are perfect, hard enough but tuff for the torque you need. I tried a T-10 and ground a small taper on the tip. I grabbed a T-15 too for bigger ones, still need to taper that one(put in drill & hold lightly against grinder while spinning). On the left you can see an adjuster I ground a couple of spiral grooves in. I use it to chase out the threads like a tap.

PS Thinking about 'reconstituting' this thread, a condensed version w/ only the actual valid tips included. I like the comments, compliments & even the nonsense if it's funny too, but it's wrecking the thread & you can't find shit anymore. It would just be a 'new' thread w/ a buttload of quoted posts to start, maybe rough sorted, then whatever you guys make of it .
OK?

Cylinder and head doweling.

^^ whats the benefits of this.

Have a read of the link Gary. For instance someone told me that fitting the dowels (or stud sleeves*) cured his pinging.










*with thanks to the inventor of StudSleeves!

Handy information!

Dowels allow for *slightly* more precise alignment tolerances. But I agree, the actual payoff vs the amount of work involved is debatable. At some point it's diminishing returns..

Wish I had known this before I did my rebuild, I never checked this clearance. Next time...

thx mike for sharing
hope it saves nerves for some guys


some more video tips out of my workshop:

checking the crankshaft

i guess how to check a crankshaft is already known here
here is a video how to do it

1) pressfit
1st is a mazzu 57 crank
2nd one is a LML crank
perfect for exercising


2) runout alignment
3) stump check
good old t5 crank:
brandnew polini crank...
check your crankcases to avoid oilsucking!
all new piaggio cases are crap and cause sucking gearbox oil
--> si carb cant be set right. blowback probs etc.

simply compare a good old case with the new one
it really hits the eyes.

quality got worse around 2001 with px millenium
and is continued with px125:2011 which is even
worse qualityvise (the crank is asian and crap)

they stopped working properly on the sealing surfaces:

malossi case
piaggio case:
unfortunately also the new pinasco cases look the same..


italian style!
only vine, pasta and AMORE in mind

Great video for anyone thinking about replacing their legshields. This guy makes it look like it's dead easy.

i want a spot welder like that

You create a distraction and I'll stick it up my jacket.

I wonder if they are somewhere near affordable. .. Google

I don't know if you have Harbor Freight there. They sell cheap, mostly Chinese tools. Not great quality but usually acceptable for occasion use. They have them for ~$200 USD. Not too bad but still quite a bit for something you will use very seldomly. You could drill holes and use a MIG welder.

Duplicate post deleted.

Thanks VRM. No we don't have HF here. Couldn't find anything in that sort of price range, the cheapest one ($329) in a quick search was this... not so far from Josh as it happens.
http://graemesworkshop.com/shop/other-tools/spot-welder-1-5mm-1-5mm.html

That's pretty amazing. That he just smoked all the way through this. No problemo...jeez. I won't be attempting that, thank you very much!

That spot welder is sick!

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

Good tip.

What the hell? That's not me!! I've been hacked here on MV!

Hey moderators!! Hack alert!

Serious.. No joke!

I changed my password.. Damn spammer/hackers..

Sitting the scooter on puppy pads before I unplug the fuel line from the carb and remove the tank.

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

youve got bugs mate

Muther f'ers!

I changed my password after the last hack WTH?