Modern Vespa

Yes...I am the cheap bastard....didn't want to spend too much on tools when I got to work on restoring my first Vespa, the parts already cost me an arm and a leg, and the bottom line is always a worry. So I ended up not spending a cent on Vespa speciality tools.

Some would call it resourceful, I just call it stingy

How anybody spends money on a clutch compression tool is crazy . It's just a bolt and a few washers . I have made clutch nut tools out of sockets before but have found it can slightly strip the nut . It can be a serious pain in the butt if that nut strips at all . Too this day I use a rubber ended screwdriver to hold my flywheel , never had a problem but yea a holding tool would be nice . The stuff you built looks very clean and solid , great job .

Looks like a great homemade set! Great job..

How'd you make the fuel tap tool? Looks mighty good!

I would not call it stingy, I would call it talented. I weld like a blind man.

You're supposed flip the mask down, when you weld...

Doesn't matter in my case, it all comes out looking like a dog's hind leg.

The only thing I don't like is the flywheel removal tool. Looks like it'll snap a fin.

Very resourceful and a fine looking set of tools you have there but I'd ditch your flywheel puller as it could easily bust up the weak aluminum outer of your flywheel.
A threaded puller acts on the center steel hub closest to the crank and is much more efficient.
Good job on the other tools though!

Everything 10mm round bar. Bend in top part, short pieces weld onto that at about 28mm width and then grinded flat for grip until 32mm width. The T-handle is bent to your liking.

Thing about stingy bastards like myself is we would rather break something far more expensive than buy a cheap tool

I have found that I just need to take care that the two arms pulling on the flywheel is under the fins and not in between. The arms are quite wide for the application, 32mm flat bar, so it does spread the force better. I made it after reading some guys using gear pullers, but my fear was that the witdh of the gear puller arms (at about 8mm) would be harmful to the flywheel.

My thinking at first was that if it would harm the flywheel on the first few pulls I'd add in two more arms to spread the force eve better, but haven't expereince the need...yet

I like your thinking! And I'm sure Voodoo would cheer you on as well.

But... I think you over-engineered your fuel tap tool.
Here's mine, although I will admit I had to spend $2 on the rod!



Have you seen this thread yet? Perhaps you'd like to add your tools to it as well. Random tricks, share your best little tips & shortcuts

In the spirit of this thread, I thought I might make a couple of tools to use in Voodoo's cool bungy method for adjusting gear cables.

In theory, the prongs will wrap around the pinch bolts that are fixed to the cable ends, and the bent handles will be used to hook the bungy hooks around.

Since there's no room for adjustment of the total bungy loop with this, I'm thinking of running the bungy through a pulley, which can then be tied to anything handy with a variable length of line.

Looking forward to pics of the tools in action Rod. Also one of the look on the wife's face when she sees what you've done!

Finally got to use the bent fork method after spare pinch bolts arrived to use on the cable ends. Alas, as a widow, I have free reign of all kitchen utensils. Amazing what you can find in the average kitchen that comes in handy in the shed

forks. genius. making a set tonight.
i hope the wife doesnt catch me...

Clever idea, Rod... 8) 8) 8)

cheers guys.

Before, I was struggling to access the selector box from the flywheel side, with the wheel on and the bike leant right over because the selector box is tucked in behind the casing. But now I realise that with the wheel off and the bike leant over the other side, the pinch bolts are much more accessible, and I can go back to regular pinch bolts instead of using the philips head screws as per my "Pinch Bolt" thread.

That means with the wheel off, I don't rock the bike back and forth through the gears like Voodoo, but just position the bike to achieve what I think is good bungy tension, lay it over, take off the wheel and with the pinch bolts loose, I just twist the shifter back and forth a few times before attaching the forks and bungy.

I fine tune the bungy tension to what I think is right by sliding the extra pinch bolts up or down the cable before hooking up the forks.

Oh yeah, it's an art form alright...

I'm getting ready to put a motor together out of parts I have on hand, some of which I have more than one. I have three eligible crankshafts and want to use the best one which means the straightest one assuming everything else is OK.

So I made this simple fixture to check for runout. Measuring on the rotary pad, two of them had 1 thousandth or less runout and the third one had nearly 10 thousandths. Similar results when I checked the bearing journals. Looks like it was a good idea to check as the 'bad' one actually looked to be the newest of the three, maybe even unused.

I won't post any pics of the fuel tap wrench I made cuz it's pretty ugly compared the others posted here.
I like Rod's cable forks, good thinking!
I think I'm gonna make a tool to pull the crankshaft into the case for my motor build, so I'll post up pics when I do.

Let's see some more homemade tools.

I did it this way but it cost about $40. I have visions of using it for balancing as well.

nice work. You need to make the front fork race nut tool. It's just a cylinder with 4 little teeth on it that allows you to properly tighten / loosen the front fork bearing. Man...that tool sure beats a hammer and a flathead screwdriver!!

No more hammer & screwdriver for me, I found one of these just the right size

Those look like they'd work for that too. But how do you do that? What about the con rod? I'd like to learn more about balancing a Vespa motor and/or the spinning components.

When you checked for runout, did you use your rollers at the bearing journals and then measure for runout on the rotary pad?

When I made it I was concerned I'd twisted my crank, so I only checked at the tails for runout.
You sit the bearing journals on the bearings pictured and push/pull the rod to turn it. I need to space the bearings a little and rinse out any remaining grease so they spin freely before I can do any balancing.

Where did you find the tool?

Valve spring compressor works better than standard. Keepers removed with magnet.

Just heating the case & freezing the crank wouldn't quite do it, so here's how I got the crank all the way into the clutch side case.


Using clutch nut & various spacers to slowly draw it in.


Could be made from just a scrap of 1/4" plate cut to fit w/ a hole for the crank. I had to weld 'wings' on the sides of the only suitable piece of steel I had handy so it would straddle enuff of the seal boss.

Ginch, I found the hook wrench in the tool box of that heavily patina'd VBA I got last year. Free BONUS! Get one, it makes things so much easier

I'll buy all the VBA's I see and maybe I'll get lucky too!

Sorry to necro post, but this is called a hook spanner. Do you know the specific size? I bet a C spanner or spanner socket would work as well.