Modern Vespa

I'm in the middle of adjusting the gear cables. No spare pinch bolts so the bungy method will have to wait.
It is currently hard to select a gear, especially downshifting......likely the gear cable adjustment, maybe also the new clutch cable needs readjustment.

Anyhoo, amidst all this, I noticed my gear selector grip can rotate right around, while the bike is stationary in neutral, not going. Not the metal piece with the clutch lever, just the rubber grip. I can't recall if this is normal, or have I broken something while trying to force a shift

if its just the grip itll have done its duty n given up ..... time for new or wrap some tape round the bar

Looks like its just the grip. They are nice original grips with the ends rebated out to allow for the rotating ring of the bar end indicators so I'd like to keep em if I can.
Should be just a matter of the right glue I suppose? The whole front end is still a bit of a mystery to me. Haven't had to spend much time there......so far

I had the same problem downshifting from 3rd to 2nd. Make sure your cables are positioned right and snug. Not too tight.

Also, try hairspray to put the grip on. I found this in one of the manuals and it works well. It lubricates while wet and secures once dry.

My problem was the lever... it was missing a shim and had a little play. When I pushed forward to downshift, the lever tilted funny causing friction on the tube. Once I got the right hardware, it shifted normally again.

I also greased up my gear selector a bit.

Yep hairspray works . Stay away from the all natural water based stuff, doesn't last.

Use WD-40! I works perfectly.. slips on easy, and once it dries and looses all it's WD-40-ness the grips won't budge! 4-Real!

if tou ever need to get em off use compressed air.. they just puff up and come off in seconds.

Hair Spray works great, but the old fashioned Granny style hair spray is what you want. The cheaper the better. I use white rain, same stuff my Grandmother used 30 years ago. Spray the bar end and inside of the grip generously and let sit for a day or so. Using it beforehand won't allow it to set up properly.

I've found rubbing alcohol works nicely.

make sure your cables dont have hard bends when you route them. ive pulled mine out and rerouted them (as well as the other wiring too) so they lay nicer and come out of the handlebar smoothly and dont hang on anything. also, lube your cables with boeshield t9. some say dont do it but this stuff is made for cables.
http://boeshield.com/features-benefits/auto-cycle/

also, grip glue is worth the money, get it at almost any motorcycle shop. works wonders. ive used it successfully for many years...
better than hairspray!

+1
hair spray


never use soap

So I had everything set to do the bungy gear cable thing. It's a holiday today, so I could not buy any pinchbolts to put on the cable ends to use my home made bent forks, but I rigged up a couple of vice grips and wrapped some wire around the handles and hooked them up to the bungy.

I started to roll the bike back and forth against the bungy tension and thought there was still a lot of resistance to the shifter tube twisting, yet the cables were not hooked up to the gear selector.

Ok I thought, I need new cables. To test this, I took out the light and speedo, ( for what must be the third time in three days)......note to self, don't put anything back until I am absolutely finished....and disconnected the gear cables from the shifter tube.

I then started to twist the shifter tube and it was STILL stiff, with no cable attachments. Now I guess the next step is to remove the clutch cable.....again....and remove the shifter tube and see what's making the damn thing so hard to twist.

Took the shifter assy apart this morning. It was interesting that even removing the lead to the indicator switch freed it up a bit, then taking out the cable outer made it a little more easy to turn, but there was still too much friction I thought.

It's like the grease has gone all sticky in here. It's all tacky....no wonder it was hard to shift.

Questions.

1. How to clean it up. I was thinking use fuel and a soft brush?
2. After searching for lithium grease, all I could find was penrite copper eze. Is that going to be ok?
3. Do I grease inner tube, ,outer tube and headset where tube goes through?

emory cloth or fine sand paper to get clean and smooth
compressed air is nice
lithium is good stuff for assembly

main thing is you want all the old paint, grime and lube removed
where ever metal slides past metal lube
no need to go over board on lube

while you have it apart you can improve the cable threw holes (square holes)... round the corners so they are not as sharp

keep lube off where the grip go on

+1 on what spidey said

and in the absence of lithium, copper grease will do although its not really made for moving parts.

a 1" paint brush and fuel is a decent cleaner

I must have taken about 2.5-3 hours to clean the parts up.....[I used a soft wire brush and acetone].....applied the grease, and put it back together. A hefty portion of that time was trying to get the bloody pin back in. What a mission that was.

Because the cable end holder sits against a sprung washer inside the headset, you have to not only align the tiny holes up with the tiny holes in the outer shifter tube, you have to also put pressure on the washer to slightly compress it.

So I thought I'd make it easier by drilling out the holes in the outer tube ever so slightly bigger. Of course, that created tiny ridges inside the outer tube, and the inner tube wouldn't slide past...Some sanding with wet and dry took care of that.

I re-greased some areas which had already wiped off, inserted the tubes, put on the spacer, washer and bracket, and FINALLY got the pin through.

YEEHA

I then went to inset the clutch cable and it wouldn't go through...what the?

I had the inner and outer tubes the wrong way, and the series of cut-outs did not align.....the inner tube needed to be rotated by 180 deg......bugger

Pulling that pin out was the hardest thing I have had to do.

Luckily, it took only about 30 mins to get back to where I had been.

So now the shifter is in, the clutch is connected, and my first attempt at adjusting the shifter cables did not go so well....but it was getting late, I was tired and my back was killing me...so I'll have another crack tomorrow.

The good news is that the shifter tube is MUCH smoother. Oh, and I have the wiring to run back to the indicator switch and bar end indicator